


The Former Mrs Winger

by Kervia



Category: Community, Community (TV)
Genre: Angst, Annie Edison is a badass, Baby, Baby Fic, Close Proximity, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Future Fic, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, Jeff Winger Has Issues, Kid Fic, M/M, Major Character Injury, Marriage, Miscarriage, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post Season 6, Post-Divorce, Pregnancy, Romance, Second Chance, Smut, Twins, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:35:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25544485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kervia/pseuds/Kervia
Summary: Jeff Winger would do anything for his daughters, even live for a month with the only woman who ever broke him... He didn’t mind that she’d changed her name back so quickly. Not at all.And if seeing her everyday again caused feelings to return? Well... who could blame him?For one month the Wingers were back together again. One big, happy, fricking family.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger, Ian Duncan/Britta Perry, Shirley Bennett & Annie Edison & Abed Nadir & Britta Perry & Jeff Winger, Shirley Bennett/Detective Butcher, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 127
Kudos: 110





	1. Advanced Anthropological Studies of Pancakes And Bacon

Jeff Winger, former lawyer, current professor of law at the now somewhat respected and “official” Greendale Community College, and legal consultant, was used to waking up in the bed with beautiful members of the opposite sex.

However, while he often found himself in... _interesting_ positions with said women, and had more than once found himself a very willing and “eager” participant in a number of threesomes, everyone involved was of legal age. None were related to him.

And none ever made him wake up by shoving their fingers up his nose, or dropping their foot on his face. 

He startled awake with a grunt of pain and a sound of temporary confusion, blinking his eyes sleepily. Once his vision cleared, Jeff couldn’t help but chuckle fondly and shake his head.

Even now he still couldn’t believe how his life had changed. He reached out and shifted Alanna back up to the head of the bed, and placed her next to her twin sister, Alicia. He watched as Alanna’s change of position from the foot of the bed to the head, caused the two three-year-olds to wake up. Their blue eyes shined up at him, as they each studied him for a moment, before grinning widely, their chestnut curls fanned beneath them on the pillows.

_They look just like her._

“Good morning, my beautiful princesses,” Jeff greeted them, feeling the skin of his cheeks stretch with the force of his smile as the warmth of pure happiness flooded his being.

It no longer surprised him, this feeling of utter joy. He’d gotten used to it over the last three or four years. And as long as he didn’t think about _her_ , didn’t allow his mind to dwell on the girls’ mother, then he could maintain that feeling everyday, all day.

“Mornin’ Daddy,” Alanna said as she sat up.

“Hi Daddy,” Alicia, who was more laid back like him, spoke up; still laying down, her eyes barely opened, as she lifted a hand and promptly let it drop back to the mattress. Not little Alanna. She was already standing, straightening her clothes and hair, and heading towards Jeff, determination in her big blue gaze.

_Just like her mother. Always ready to take on the world._

Jeff lifted Alanna into his arms, then leaned down to pick up Alicia. He swung her over his shoulder, smiling at her childish and exuberant giggles.

“What do you girls want for breakfast?” He asked as he walked down the stairs of his two-story colonial home equipped with 3 bedrooms, an office, a home gym in the basement, kitchen, dining room, pool, large backyard outfitted with a tree house and swings for the twins, family room, two and a half bathrooms, and a guesthouse out back.

“Pancakes!” Alicia yelled, patting her hands against Jeff’s back.

“Bacon!” Alanna responded, lifting her hands in the air.

Jeff deposited both girls in their booster seats (purple for Alanna, green for Alicia) and leaned forward, lowering his voice, and whispering conspiratorially, “How about... both?”

When both of his daughters widened their eyes and gasped—just like _her_ —as if amazed that having both pancakes and bacon on a Saturday morning, made by “Daddy” was even an option.

“Weally?” Alicia breathed and Jeff nodded. Alicia turned to look at her sister, who simply stared at her in awe, before they both clapped and cheered.

“Yay!”

Jeff nodded and turned to grab the girls their coloring books and crayons, so he could focus on cooking. He pulled out the ingredients he needed and whistled the tune of a song he was pretty sure came from some Disney+ cartoon (or maybe that Hamilton play that Britta still couldn’t stop reciting) as he moved around the kitchen. He kept an eye on his girls, who were happily coloring and chattering away to each other about what he could only guess were their plans to take over the world.

He didn’t care what Shirley said, his daughters were gorgeous geniuses whose interactions with their Aunt Britta had turned hem into little baby anarchists. The kind who were focused on world domination so that they could “destwoy the patwiawchy, Daddy!”

He chuckled to himself again and flipped over the Minnie Mouse pancakes on the griddle.

“Daddy?” Alanna called.

He glanced over at her.

“Yes, sweetheart?”

Alanna looked at Alicia, before turning to stare towards the front door, then returning her gaze back to him.

“Where’s Mommy?”

And just like that, pain sliced through him. He knew his happy bubble couldn’t last forever. Not with the world’s smartest and most beautiful three-year-olds in his life. It wasn’t fair of him to ask his daughters not to ask about their mother, even if just the thought of her made him want to drink every drop of Scotch from every bottle that he had hidden and stashed away in his home.

“Your mommy isn’t with us anymore,” he choked out. “Remember? Daddy has to drive you and your sister to Denver if you want to talk to and see Mommy.”

Alanna nodded.

“Yeah, Mommy is at the place with all the sad and mad people who all weyah black,” Alicia told her sister.

Alanna nodded again. “I miss her.”

_Yeah. I do too._

Before Jeff could allow his thoughts continue on that morose track, he turned off the stove and brought the girls their breakfast. He’d only just set the plates down on the table when the doorbell rang. Sighing deeply, Jeff glanced over at the calendar on the wall where he’d marked with red marker the next thirty-one days.

_I can do this. It’s only 31 days. I can do this_.

He placed a kiss on top of the twins’ heads and headed over to the front door. Inhaling deeply to settle his nerves-anxiety and annoyance battling for dominance within him ( _this was NOT the plan... I go there, she doesn’t come here... but I should have known she would do things her own way_ )—he unlocked and then tugged open the front door.

He dropped his gaze down onto her face, ignoring the way his heart started to pound, the way his palms began to sweat, and even the way it suddenly seemed to be so much easier to breathe. He would follow her lead and at that moment, her face was an implacable mask.

Her hair was pulled back into a tight, low bun. Her eyes were covered by the pair of black shades she always wore whenever he saw her recently. Her body wrapped in a black suit that to him looked extremely uncomfortable.

“Good morning, Mr. Winger. Are the girls awake?”

He tried to hold back his snark and sarcasm whenever he saw her but their divorce had only been finalized three days ago and she had already changed her status from “Separated” to “Single” on social media and her last name from Winger to...

_Don’t think about it_.

_Don’t think about it. And whatever you do, don’t mention it._

“Yes they are. Good to see you, Mrs. Winger. Or are you going by your maiden name again? Should I call you Ms Edison or is Annie okay? It’s so hard to keep up these days.”

_Idiot. At least that insult of hers was right_.

Annie tugged off her shades and rolled her big, blue eyes. The same Disney eyes his daughters had. The same ones which had ensnared him and drowned him in the hopeless, doomed emotion called love he’d so rightly avoided his entire life.

“Oh grow up, Jeff.”

“Mommy!”

Jeff’s own eyes slid closed as he heard the joy in his daughters’ voices.

It’s not about you, and it’s not about her. It’s about them.

“Come on in.” He swept his arm out, welcoming her in. “Where are your bags?”

She jerked her thumb towards the backyard. 

“Guesthouse.”

Jeff nodded and followed her back to the kitchen, after locking the now closed door behind them. He squared his shoulders and raised his chin, planting a wide, fake smile on his face. His girls were too young to understand that sometimes love just wasn’t enough. He’d be damned if he destroyed their world even more than he already had. He could play nice with the best of them. 

Besides, he still loved Annie.

She just... didn’t love him anymore.

It was going to be a long month.


	2. Day One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Art of Saying Goodbye  
> or  
> When Jeff and Annie Became... More

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> T/W: Implied and mention of miscarriage which may be triggering to some readers.

_**Day One** _

“Annie moving into the guest house for a month is exactly what the audience wants. There’s no way the network would be okay with our show’s Ross and Rachel, and simultaneous Monica and Chandler, not ending up together,” Abed’s voice sounded sure, calm, confident, and slightly bored. Then again, that’s how he always sounded.

  
“Abed, my relationship with Annie isn’t some sitcom that plays on a major network, then winds up on some streaming site like Netflix. It’s real life,” Jeff mutters as he watches Annie with their daughters.

  
Annie was smiling, bouncing slightly in her chair as she colored with the girls, and they all giggled and chattered with each other.

  
 _My girls_ , he sighed to himself. Pain lanced through him as he realized that with everyone else, except him, Annie was still... _Annie_. Bright. Bubbly. Shiny. Positive. A warm light that brought goodness and love and happiness to everyone around her, and yet with him... she was as cold as Michelle had been to him after the Transfer Dance fiasco all those many years ago.

  
“I beg to differ,” Abed interrupted Jeff’s pity party. “If there was anyone whose life was a sitcom, it would be yours, Jeff. You were obviously our group’s hero, the main male character, and though the network and creators may have originally planned for Britta to be your leading lady because of the both of you being broken emotionally, having similar outlooks on love, her being a blonde—which tends to test better with most audiences than brunettes—and your ages, it became pretty apparent in our first season that Annie was the one you were meant to end up with by the series finale.”

  
Jeff scoffed. “Yeah, sure Abed. That is exactly what happened. See? Annie and are blissfully in love right now.” He swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat.

  
Abed didn’t respond, he merely hummed.

  
Jeff rolled his eyes and grunted. “What?”

  
“If you and Annie haven’t settled into your happily ever after... haven’t given the audiences a satisfactory ending, then... our show isn’t over.”

  
Jeff blinked at Abed’s words, able to understand the meaning behind his entertainment-fueled, Hollywood filming, ramblings after years of friendship. He tried to stomp down the hope that fought to infuse him, but a small seed had been planted, and before he could stop himself Jeff found himself whispering, “You really think so?”

  
“Yes.”

  
Short. Simple. To the point. Without artifice or flattery. It’s why Jeff called him. It’s what made Abed his best friend.

  
_After Annie._

  
Or rather, now that he didn’t have Annie anymore.

  
“I have to go now. It’s date night for Troy and I and I promised him we would watch the first season of some show called Atlanta. He swears the main character looks like him.”

  
“Okay, talk to you both—“

  
Jeff chuckles when he realized that Abed had already hung up. Shaking his head, Jeff struggled with where his life currently was. Of all the future scenarios he’d envisioned with Annie, none of them had ever ended up with the two of them divorced, living apart, Annie on one side of Denver, him on the Greendale side. The two of them sharing custody, but due to Annie’s job, the girls mostly being with him. And with the two of them not being able to have a civilized conversation without it turning in a heated argument and accusations being tossed around.

  
Him being in love with her, but Annie having fallen out of love with him.

  
_How the hell did my life end up like this?_

****  
 **(Setting: Jeff Winger’s Lexus. Night. On the roads of Greendale after the group goodbye in Study Room F)**

The story of how Annie Edison became Annie Winger, and then Annie Edison again got its start as all great stories do, in the interior of a once very expensive vehicle that through circumstance and by the steadily marked passage of time, had begun to lose its value. Jeff Winger, feeling emotionally raw and decidedly vulnerable, had offered to drive Annie, Britta, and Abed home from the college, once everyone had finished saying their goodbyes. While many would have seen his offer as altruistic, noble, and beautiful in the face of his being summarily given a “goodbye kiss” from the one girl he had ever truly been in love with, an emotion which had endured for years, Jeff didn’t see it that way. For him, it was his way of regaining control, or the upper hand, in a situation where neither his looks, nor his ability to talk circles around others, had the power to make Annie—or Abed—stay. He’d basically told her that he’d loved her for years and still...

  
_Wasn’t me telling her that I had let her go as best as I could, the very sort of sacrificial, big gesture, romantic sort of bullshit that Annie always went for? Wasn't it supposed to make her stay?_

  
He glanced at her, where she sat in the backseat next to Britta. He wasn’t surprised when he found those big, blue Disney eyes trained on him. To be sure, he was glad to be able to look at her whenever he wanted—all without making any sort of true effort of actually turning to look at her--all without putting any of them in danger. He’d grown, yes, but he was still Jeff T. Winger, trying to get the most for the least amount of effort.

  
When Annie offered him a small, gentle smile, his heart thudded in his chest, and he offered her one in return. He knew she had to leave. Knew he couldn’t hold her back, and yet, that didn’t quiet his dick—his heart—from silently screaming out in pain.

  
_Stay! Please don’t leave me! Not even for a moment._

  
That pathetic bastard. He’d spent years hammering down his emotions and feelings as a kid, lived for decades uncaring about anyone other than himself—and to a degree, his mother—but thanks to six other misfits... thanks to _her_... he’d begun to... _feel_. He’d grown and changed. He’d matured to a certain extent. He’d become a better person.

  
_I wonder if I could sue her for that. It may be a little petty and ridiculous, but maybe it will keep her in Greendale... or at least Colorado for a few more months... or years. Depending upon the court docket._

  
Jeff cut off that train of thought, knowing it to be counterproductive, and yet... was there anything he wouldn’t do to keep her? To have her?

  
_No. But I can’t do that to her, I love her too much._

  
Pulling up in front of apartment 303, he shut off the car’s engine and sat there in silence with the other three original members of the study group.

  
“Is it weird that I don’t want to get out of the car?” Annie whispered from where she sat in the backseat.

Britta sniffled. “No. Because once any of us leaves this car then we have to face the fact that this is over. Coming to an end.”

“It’s a classic series finale,” Abed stated, almost apathetically, though they all knew that his bland, unemotional statement was no indicator of his true feelings.

“In what way?” Jeff asked.

“All of the characters have gone through growth and development,” Abed stated, his finger pointing towards the sky as he made his point. “And with Shirley having moved on to her spinoff… Troy exploring his…” They all pretended not to hear the catch of emotion in his voice as he mentioned his soulmate. “Now with Annie and I going off to explore our next shows, the show can either try to keep going with four or five new cast members to supplement you and Britta staying, or it can simply fade to black.”

No one spoke, the interior of the car growing even quieter than it had been before. The silence was almost stifling in its heart-breaking realization. This was it. This was the end. Jeff was struggling to accept it. Trying hard to once again be okay with the new direction his life had taken. When he’d been forced to return to college after his fraudulent career as a lawyer was exposed, it had taken him more than three years to really, truly accept his new journey in life. And another three years to accept that he was a good person after all.

It had taken him six years to realize that the young, idealistic, ambitious, gorgeous brunette who dominated his waking thoughts and haunted his dreams, was the one woman, the only woman, that he had ever truly loved. And he’d spent those six years stringing her along, hurting her emotionally, and playing with her heart. So while it tore him up inside to imagine her leaving him in a week, he deserved to lose her.

_Karma is a bitch._

“But this doesn’t have to be a finale, right?” Annie asked softly.

“I guess not. Not for you and Jeff,” Abed answered. “If you decide to come back to Greendale after the summer, then the show will continue in a way. You’re much too invested in the idea of all of us being a family to allow us to lose contact, or to not visit and see each other frequently during the year.”

Annie sighed and gave a sweet _Aaww_ , making Jeff smile from where he sat in the driver’s seat. While that noise had annoyed him in the beginning whenever she and Shirley had done it in concert, now he couldn’t imagine going a whole day without that sound. Without Annie’s rose-gold view of the world.

Without _her_.

Ugh. I’ve become so fucking sappy and annoying since Borchert’s Lab. Is this who I am now? All poetic and introspective and shit? Or am I only like this because Annie’s still here and hasn’t left yet?

Maybe he’d return to normal once she was on a plane and he could get drunk and perhaps sleep with some hot, age-appropriate, stacked brunette— _call her Annie_ —and get it out of his system.

“Of course, if Troy returns then we would all have to come back in order to welcome him back to Greendale. That, in turn, would guarantee another year of hijinks, shenanigans, and general tomfoolery as he shares his adventures, and we navigate the new characters he would inevitably bring with him,” Abed theorized.

“You really think Troy would bring new people back with him, Abed?” Britta asked. “Like… replace us?”

Jeff frowned. There was no way in the world that Troy would meet another man who looked as good, or was as cool, as Jeffrey T. Winger. There was only one of him. 

_Except for Evil! Jeff._

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “Troy isn’t bringing any new people back with him to replace us. He and Levar Burton have probably just forgotten that they’re supposed to return. He’ll be back soon and when he does, he’ll be more mature, but he’ll still be him.” Jeff waited for everyone in the car to nod, acknowledging his words before he continued. “And we’ll never lose touch with each other, and we’ll always visit each other multiple times during the year. This is just a new journey for the two of you. And this is just the first step. We’re not going to stop being a family just because we’re in different places.”

He caught Annie’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “You don’t stop loving someone just because you aren’t going to see them everyday. If anything, you allow your love for them to strengthen and grow, in order to sustain you during those moments when you’re apart. Then when you are together, you foster it, nourish it, and make it grow.”

Britta smiled at him. “I see therapy is working.”

Jeff rolled his eyes again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Uh, duh-doy. Sure,” Britta scoffed.

“Well, I’m going to go up,” Abed announced. “If I’m going to pack, I have to adhere to the rules of the series finale and do it slowly, stopping to laugh and reminisce over every article.” And with that, Abed opened his door and stepped out of the car, heading inside the apartment building without looking back.

Britta sighed and ran her fingers through the top of her hair. “I guess I better go see if Abed needs to be therapized,” she muttered. “He’s not actually going to handle this well. I think Troy not responding for the last few months is actually bothering him more than he’s letting on.” She looked at Annie, then at Jeff. “I’ll um… let you guys talk. See you upstairs, Annie.”

With that, Britta climbed out of Jeff’s vehicle and closed the door behind her. Jeff watched Annie as she watched Britta return to their apartment, before her eyes collided with his in the rearview mirror. She opened her door, and after closing it behind her, walked up to the passenger side where Abed had left the door open, and stepped into the car, sitting down, slamming the door shut.

The interior of the car darkened almost instantly as the light cut off. Neither of them spoke, simply stared at the other. For long moments, Jeff and Annie breathed each other. Took each other in with only their eyes. Their hearts pounded in their chests. And Jeff felt his groin tighten merely from memorizing every curve, plane, and dip of Annie’s form. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. He didn’t know what he wanted to say. What would be appropriate at that time.

And, as if she knew he was struggling, Annie spoke…

“I haven’t seen your bedroom in a while, Jeff. Want to take me back to your place and show me again?”

****  
“Well, you’ll have to ask your Daddy that, won’t you?” Annie’s voice punctured through Jeff’s memories, and he blinked, focusing back onto the present.

He turned his head and found Alanna and Alicia, standing in front of Annie, all three of them bouncing slightly as they all stared up at him with their blue eyes, silently pleading.

“Not. Fair,” he groaned. “All three of you at once? You know that I’m helpless to refuse. What do you want?”

“Watuh Wowld!” The twins shouted, simultaneously.

Jeff looked at Annie, giving her a look. She knew the water park was temporarily closed down thanks to the pandemic, but she was going to turn him into the bad guy by having him say no?

_Low, Annie. Just. Low._

“Hmm… well, Water World is closed right now, but how about Mommy and me make a water park right here? We can do it here at the house, with the pool, the backyard, the hose, the kiddie pools?” He looked at Annie and noticed the flash of guilt in her eyes as she realized what she’d done. At her slight nod, he gave her a small smile.

“Awww, Daddy!” Alanna whined.

“No, Anna,” Annie soothed. “Daddy is right. Besides, if we do it here, then we can invite Auntie Britta, and Auntie Frankie…”

“Oohh and Daddy’s boyfwiend, Uncle Cwaig!” Alicia said happily, clapping her hands.

Jeff coughed as he attempted to swallow. “That man is not my boyfriend!” He exclaimed, narrowing his eyes at Annie’s attempt to stifle a giggle. “And he is not your uncle! Who told you that he was?”

“He did,” Alanna shrugged as if it didn’t matter to her.

“When?” Jeff asked, his eyebrows lowering and scrunching together as he frowned in confusion.

“When we went to Mommy’s job,” Alicia said. “We weuh playing hide and seek, and you and Mommy weuh kissin’ and talkin’ and he came up and told us. He said you weuh kissin’ Mommy because you miss him.”

Jeff groaned. He remembered that day. It had been a few months back. He’d taken the girls to go and see Annie at work in order to finalize the details for the summer. He’d been wearing a suit, having just completed a meeting with a high-profile client who had him on retainer. The girls were dressed alike in purple shorts, purple tanks, and their favorite pair of purple sandals. And when Jeff had seen Annie, he’d almost swallowed his tongue. She’d had on a V-neck, purple shirt, her pale cleavage prominently and gloriously displayed, and a pair of figure hugging, black slacks. Her black ankle boots made her only a fraction taller than usual, and while all of that was artfully displayed, it had been her makeup-free face, and her hair, which had grown, and hung down in loose curls to the middle of her back, which had him growling in the base of his throat. He wasn’t sure what Annie had seen in his eyes, but whatever it was, she’d pulled him to the other side of the waiting room, in an alcove, and buried her tongue down his throat.

They’d left the twins playing in the children’s area.

That day had been bittersweet. Jeff had been so sure that they were on their way to a reconciliation. But Annie’s text message to him, hours later, had disillusioned him of that idea pretty quickly.

**_My Doe Eyes: You were always a great kisser, Jeff. It’s just too bad our marriage wasn’t built on your kisses._ **

Jeff had been forced to take a breath before he responded. His ego and sarcastic quips had wanted to lash out in hurtful anger at the only woman who’d ever accepted him for who he was, while simultaneously making him want to be a better man for her. She’d encouraged him to change, while loving him for who he was and in spite of his flaws—which she’d loved and accepted. He couldn’t understand what had happened to them. Why they’d lost… them, but after he’d taken a breath—or four—he’d finally answered.

_**Jeff, The Man: our marriage was built on us luvin the other that nvr stopped on my end** _

He hadn’t even been sure that she was going to still show up at the house for the summer since she hadn't spoken to him about it since then, but he was glad that his brutal honesty hadn’t turned her away.

“Yeah, that man isn’t Daddy’s boyfriend, or your real uncle,” Annie corrected the girls. “But Mommy and Daddy have known him for a long time, and he’s a really nice guy, so we’ll invite him too.”

The twins let out cheers of happiness before they both ran off to their rooms.

Jeff chuckled softly, then turned to look at Annie.

She gave him a look of guilt that was so adorable it should have been illegal.

“Sorry, Jeff.”

He shrugged with a snort. “It’s not your fault that I’m weak and easily manipulated when it comes to you and our children.”

“Yeah, you are.”

They shared a laugh, their bodies naturally drifting closer to each other.

“Well, it’s not my fault that you’re all just so perfectly crafted,” Jeff stated.

“Well, it’s a good thing there’s only three of us then,” Annie pointed out, bouncing slightly, and Jeff’s heart clenched in hopefulness. Maybe this was it. Maybe she was becoming his Annie again. If only he could just keep her smiling and laughing at him. _With_ him.

“Yeah, there’s no telling what I’d do if we had three daughters,” Jeff remarked offhandedly with a smile.

He knew he’d made a mistake before he even heard the sharp inhale of breath that Annie took.

_Fuck._

“Yeah… it’s a good thing we don’t have three kids, Jeff,” Annie responded, her voice having lost all of its bubbly, sunshineyness. He opened his mouth to apologize. To make things right again, but Annie lifted her hand swiftly, cutting off his words.

“I’m uh… I’m going to go and buy what we need for the Winger Water Park. Um…” She looked everywhere but at him. “Tell the girls I’ll be right back.”

She turned and left without waiting for a response.

Just as she had the day they separated.

_The day she broke him._

Jeff lifted his right hand and rubbed his chest right over where his heart lay. Fuck. I didn’t know there was anything left to break.

****  
Annie sat in her car, out in the parking lot of Party City, and let her tears roll down her cheeks. She’d thought she’d shed every tear she’d ever have in those months after…

_I can’t even think it._

She shook her head and placed her hand on her lower abdomen.

_It hasn’t been long enough. How am I still the only one suffering? Still the only one sad? I love Alanna and Alicia, but… I miss Justin, even though I never got a chance to meet him. How can Jeff just not care about him?_

She slid her hand up to her sun visor and pulled it down, sliding her fingers beneath the mirror’s edge.

She tugged out the aged and worn sonogram of the precious, six-month-old in utero boy, who never got a chance to take his first breath.

And her tears turned into deep, wracking sobs.

****  
Back at the Winger house, Jeff’s shoulders shook as he cried softly into his hands, the water running in the sink and music from Dave Matthews’ Band (known as “Dave” to his true fans) playing loudly on the house’s surround sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo.... yeah. I told you guys this was going to be sad at the beginning. And yeah, this is just one of the reasons that Annie and Jeff split, but we all know that when it comes to those two, it's always so much more than just one thing. And poor Annie! She has no idea that she's not grieving alone. But what do you bet, Abed knows?
> 
> Also, so I got a ton of ideas for more J/A fanfiction, so I'll be updating "The Former Mrs. Winger" on Fri/Saturdays and the other stories (which I'll start posting soon) on their assigned days. Just to kind of break up the sad stories from me. LOL.


	3. Day Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group reunites at the Winger Water Park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is posting late today. My sister is sick, so I was playing nursemaid yesterday. But here you go! This one is a little steamy, but not like explicit steamy. And it's kind of "awww" and sad and happy.
> 
> Anyway, I'm rambling. Enjoy!

**_Chapter Two_ **

**_Day Two_ **

  
  


Annie woke up early, sat up in bed, and stretched. A happy squeal escaped her lips, and when she looked at the nightstand, she grinned at the picture that rested there. It was a picture of Alanna, Alicia, and Jeff, all with their faces painted as cats from the Denver Fair the year before.

_When we were still happy._

Sighing, Annie ran her fingers through her hair, and walked towards the shower that was just on the other side of the master bedroom in the guesthouse.

She hated not being in the main house. She hated having an apartment on the other side of Denver, but, all things considered…

_It’s my own fault. I was the one who left. The one who filed for a divorce. If only he’d fought for us. For me._

But really, was she surprised? Jeff had never really fought _for_ them. For her. He’d let her date other men, crush on other men, while he was in love with her the entire time. He’d slept with other women--Britta--all while wanting her. He’d let her go off to the FBI, even though they’d spent a blissful week together talking about their feelings and how much they wanted to be together.

As the hot water from the rainfall showerhead streamed down, filling the bathroom with steam, Annie thought back to the week with Jeff before she’d left for a summer in D.C.

  
  


* * * *

  
  


Annie followed Jeff into his apartment, her heart pounding in her chest. It wasn’t as if this was the first time she’d ever slept with a man. There had been Randy in high school, but Annie wasn’t really sure if he counted seeing as how Annie never got off, Randy was gay, and he cried the entire time. They hadn’t even gotten fully naked.

Well, there had been Vaughn, but though she knew the rest of the Study Group, especially Jeff and Britta, thought that she and Vaughn had slept together repeatedly, the truth of the matter was, they’d only slept together maybe once a month that they were together.

And while she’d been sworn to secrecy, and though they’d told everyone that he’d rejected her, there had been the month that she and Rich spent together. She would _never_ tell Jeff about that. Couldn’t tell him that it happened when she worked for Futuruza and had gone to Rich’s hospital.

Jeff would never understand that she _needed_ to do it. She needed the experience. But even with Rich it had been… well, if she could issue him a grade, “Mr. Perfect”, as Jeff called him, would have gotten a C. It was almost as if he’d been afraid of her vagina. Which made no sense at all unless he was…

_Oh gosh, I’m Grace, from Will and Grace. Without the red hair dye, with my natural chestnut hair color, who dates guys who then turn out to be gay. I’m turning guys gay._

“Annie?” Jeff’s voice pulled her out of her inner musings, and she blinked at him. “You okay? Did you change your mind?”

Annie opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. She was almost frozen in silence. Her fear of actually sleeping with Jeff--something she’d wanted for years--had rendered her a mute. She could only shake her head.

“No you’re not okay, or no you haven’t changed your mind?” Jeff asked again, his eyebrows lowering in confusion. He stepped close to her, looking into her eyes.

Annie tried to swallow, but her throat felt dry and her head was swimming. For the first time in a long time, she was unable to use her words to get what she wanted. Unable to use logic. So she lifted up her first two fingers and Jeff nodded.

Without any sort of warning, Annie found herself being lifted up into Jeff’s arms as he carried her further into his condo, over to his couch, where he sat down with her in his lap. Annie giggled, then quieted when she noticed that Jeff had never removed the decorations she’d placed around his living room when Professor Cornwallis came over during their holiday party.

When she returned her gaze back to Jeff’s face, she found him watching her, his eyes softened by emotion and gentle amusement.

“You kept them?” She got out in a rough voice, slowly lifting her arms to wrap them around Jeff’s neck.

“Of course I did,” Jeff answered. “I’ve saved everything you’ve ever given me or left at my house, or in my car, or just behind when I was there, since the first time you threw yourself into my arms.”

Annie frowned. “When did I _ever_ throw myself into your arms?” She asked, removing her arms from around his neck in a huff, folding her arms beneath her breasts and pouting. Her body bounced just slightly, and she felt righteous indignation rush through her.

Jeff chuckled and reached up to caress her cheek with his thumb.

“You’ve done it plenty of times. I never brought it up because I always enjoyed it, but the first time was outside of the pep rally where we came to an understanding about Troy,” Jeff stated.

Annie frowned as she struggled to remember what day he was talking about.

Jeff shook his head. “It was right before I called you: _Milady_ and escorted you into the gym.”

Annie dropped her jaw in surprise as she remembered the night he was talking about. “You remember that?”

Jeff nodded. “Of course I do.” He mumbled something and Annie frowned.

“What did you just say, Jeff?” She asked.

Jeff sighed and rolled his eyes, before he leaned his head back to rest it on the sofa cushions behind him. “I said, I remember every moment we ever had together.”

Annie bounced on his lap slightly and felt her eyes widen in adoration. “Aawww! Jeff! That is so sweet!”

She leaned forward and kissed him, much more confidently than their kiss at the Transfer Dance, or their kiss in the study room, or any of their other kisses in between. But still she was sure that Jeff could sense her inexperience. She tilted her head and opened her mouth, moaning when Jeff followed suit, and she slipped her tongue in between his lips. She wriggled when she felt his hands tighten on her hips, just before one hand slid up her back into her hair. She tried to press herself as close as she could to him, and tilted her head back when he began to press kisses on her jaw, down her neck, into the opening of her button-down shirt. He flicked out his tongue along the skin of her cleavage and Annie clenched her hands on his shoulders.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Jeff groaned. “You taste so damn good, Annie.”

She squirmed on his lap, his words causing her nipples to harden more than they had before and her panties to become soaked.

“Jeeeeffff,” she moaned.

“Jesus, Annie,” he growled. “Are you trying to kill me? You’re trying to kill me,” he muttered as he moved his hands to the buttons on her shirt and started to release them from their buttonholes.

She shook her head, even as she stroked her hands down Jeff’s chest to his hem and the skin beneath his shirt. When Jeff shivered, she smiled widely and giggled a little. She tried to fix her face when Jeff leaned back to look at her, but she wasn’t sure she was successful.

“Umm… I know I seem pretty confident when it comes to sleeping with women, but you’re not like every other woman I’ve ever slept with. You’re… _you_. You matter to me. You’re really all that does, to a deeply, personal, you know… part of me.”

Annie smiled softly at him, and lifted a hand, to stroke his cheek.

“Why me?” She asked softly. “Because I’m not as sexy as Michelle, or as… dense as Sabrina, or as... loose as Amber, or as… I’m not _Britta_ .” _That was it._ At the base of all her insecurities when it came to being with Jeff was Britta. The woman he’d chosen to be with. Time and time again. The one he had inadvertently created their weird dysfunctional, slightly incestuous because of his pursuit of _her_.

Jeff shook his head and reached up to cup her face in his hands.

“Are you serious?” He asked her, bewilderment on his face. Annie merely shrugged. Jeff tugged her closer until their noses were incredibly close to touching. Jeff stared into her eyes, and Annie shivered slightly as the intense, penetrating look in Jeff’s blue eyes sank deep into her soul.

“Annie don’t you know? Haven’t you figured it out yet?”

Annie shook her head as she stared at him. “You told me that you let me go with your head and your hands, but that your heart wanted what it wants…”

“And I kissed you like I was going to regret not doing it for the rest of my life… because I was. I did.”

Annie frowned. “You regretted kissing me?”

Jeff shook his head with a soft chuckle. “No. I regretted not kissing you for the last five, six years. I regretted not making you mine after the debate against City College. I regretted not putting a ring on your finger after the Tranny Dance. I regretted sleeping with, looking at, checking out, or dating any woman who wasn’t you, since the moment I met you. I regretted the fact that of the two of us, it wasn’t you, the young girl, who needed to grow up. It was me, the old, former lawyer. I regretted that I wasn’t ready for you, and that the moment I was, you were getting ready to leave me. Because, Annie… it’s always been you. And I’m pretty sure it will always _be you_.”

That was all it had taken to remove all doubt and hesitation for the moment. She was sure that they would probably return. But right then? In that moment...

“Ohhh Jeeefff,” she moaned as his hands gripped, squeezed, stroked, caressed and teased her. Undressing her. His mouth and tongue following. No part of her body was left untouched.

He treasured her.

He worshipped her body.

Until finally…

“Are you sure?” he asked as he leaned over her, her legs wrapped around his hips, her fingers clutching his shoulders.

Her body was shaking with the aftereffects of the last two orgasms he’d given her with his mouth and his fingers, and she could barely take a breath. She reached up and caressed his cheek, looking for… something. She wasn’t exactly sure what. But when he looked back at her, his blue eyes dark with intensity, adoration, care and… 

“Yes, I’m sure,” Annie panted. “I love you, Jeff.”

“I love you, Annie. So much.”

He entered her and it was beautiful. The joining of their bodies. It was a beautiful culmination of years of longing, yearning, and desire.

And when Annie left a week later, she’d had no idea that in just two months she would be returning, a month before she was scheduled to, because of the twin girls she and Jeff had created that first night.

  
  


* * * *

  
  


Annie sank back against the shower wall, slowly pulling her fingers from inside of her. Her body still shaking, tears rolling down her cheeks.

_I’m the only one I know of who can have an orgasm while their heart was breaking at the same time._

She shook herself mentally, and straightened up. She grabbed her purple shower puff, grabbed her bottle of _Caress Vanilla and Lavender,_ poured a generous amount of liquid on it, and began to wash her body. She thought about spending the day with Alanna and Alice and a big grin stretched her lips. She began to bounce and sing a song--what song was it? Where did it come from? Annie giggled when she realized she was singing a song from _Moana_.

She continued to sing the song through drying off, getting dressed, and heading over to the main house, her hair pulled up into a ponytail, wearing a _Greendale Community College_ XL t-shirt, with the neckline cut, the shirt slipping off one shoulder. Jeff had dyed the shirt purple for her, and given it to her along with the purple and black tie-dyed leggings she wore, and the purple and black sneakers on her feet.

 _He always made sure I looked good_ , she thought to herself, her heart clenching in her chest.

She opened the back door and stepped inside.

“Who’s ready to make a water park?” She called out as she headed towards the dining room where she heard voices coming from.

Annie stepped into the room, and came to a halt when she saw who was there and what was going on.

Jeff stood next to Alicia, cutting up her waffles for her, while Professor Vera Lane, a lawyer, and law professor for civil rights from Colorado University-Denver, whom Jeff occasionally worked on cases with, stood next to Alanna, braiding her hair. Annie looked at the other woman, who was taller than her, standing at 5’10”, her skin a beautiful, smooth, chestnut brown, her eyes slanted, a gorgeous hazel brown color, her thick black hair, which Annie had only seen up the last two times she’d met the gorgeous African-American woman, was down, hanging in tight curls to just below her shoulders. She was just as beautiful, her body containing curves in all the right places, and when she smiled at her, Annie struggled not to let out a scream of indignation and injustice.

It was so unfair how beautiful Vera was.

So unfair how tall she was.

So unfair how close she and Jeff were.

_“There’s nothing going on between Vera and I. She’s a friend. A colleague. I meant what I told you all those years ago, Annie. You are the only one for me.”_

_“If that was true then why do you spend more time with her than with me?”_

_“We work together, Annie! You’re starting to sound like me with the jealousy. She’s just a friend!”_

_Annie had frowned then and stepped close to Jeff, where he stood in front of the dresser, looking at himself in the mirror, as he got undressed._

_“Is she a friend like Britta is?” She asked softly, noticing the very moment that Jeff grew still._

_“Britta_ is _a friend. And she’s with Ian now. I’m happy for them.”_

 _“Yeah, but you were ‘_ in love’ _with me, but sleeping with her, and telling me that she was just a friend. Is that how you and Vera are friends? Can she give you healthy babies, Jeff?”_

 _Jeff turned to look at her, staring down into her face. “Annie. Even if you_ never _gave me another child. If we_ never _had sex again, you would still be the only woman for me. I waited too long to have you. There’s no way I’m going to do anything to screw that up again. Nothing.”_

Annie took a deep breath and walked over to the table.

“Hey guys! Am I late for breakfast?” She asked, trying to put on a happy face.

“No, not at all,” Jeff responded, staring intently at her. “Vera just came by to drop off some files, and the girls wanted her to braid their hair for the Winger Water Park.”

Annie nodded. “Well, that sounds like such fun!” She smiled at Vera. “Thank you so much for helping, Vera.”

Vera smiled brightly at her, and Annie found herself flicking her gaze quickly over to Jeff to see if he was affected, but when she found his eyes still resting on her, it… comforted her. Even though they weren’t… together, anymore, it made Annie happy to know he still couldn’t take his focus off her, even with a stunning woman in the room.

“Well, Wingman,” Vera laughed. “Let’s switch. I’m finished with Alanna, so you can get her waffle, I’ll do Alicia’s hair, and then I’ll be on my way. I’m pretty sure Frankie is growing anxious waiting for me out in the car.”

Annie’s eyebrows lifted in surprise for a second before she jumped slightly over towards Vera.

“Oh no! Don’t worry, Vera. I’d hate for you to keep Frankie waiting. So you go ahead and go and I’ll finish up here,” she offered.

“No, Mommy! No! I want Vewa to do it!” Alicia protested, pouting, her big blue eyes widening and filling with tears.

_Oh boy. Is this what Jeff’s been dealing with since he met me? No wonder he could never tell me no._

“I… uh… um…” She looked over at Jeff and he gave her a look of understanding and sympathy. “Okay, honey. Vera can do your hair too,” Annie agreed, feeling rejected.

She sighed and looked away, her gaze falling on the family portrait that hung on the wall. It was of the four of them, dressed in Wild West clothing, each of them holding a paintball, with paint splattered on the wall around them. It was the cutest, most adorable picture she’d ever seen. Abed was a genius for suggesting it.

She shivered when she felt Jeff’s warm breath on the side of her neck.

“That was a good day, wasn’t it?” He whispered in her ear.

Annie swallowed thickly and nodded.

“Yes it was. The girls’ first paintball war. They were amazing. Just as I knew they would be.”

She turned and looked up at him, uncertainty thrumming in her veins.

“The-the girls aren’t replacing me with Vera, are they? You know, because I’m not around as much?” She asked softly.

Jeff chuckled quietly and shook his head, raising his hand to, no doubt, push back the strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail, but stopping just shy of doing so. Annie opened her eyes when she realized he’d prevented himself from completing an action that had become second nature between the two of them, regret slicing through her heart. Jeff cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck.

“No one could ever replace you, Annie. Not for the girls…” He mumbled something else, and Annie was almost sure it was _“and not for me,”_ but she couldn’t be sure, and she didn’t want to hope.

“Thanks, Jeff.”

He nodded then gestured out the door. “Why don’t we go set up the water park while Vera finishes up Alicia’s hair?”

Annie nodded.

“I wanna go with Mommy!” Alanna cheered and Annie bounced with happiness at the desire of at least _one_ of her daughters wanting to be with her.

“Okay, honey,” Annie agreed, and walked over to help Alanna out of her chair.

She headed out of the back door with Alanna in her arms, Jeff walking behind them. Jeff turned on some music on the outdoor surround system, and Annie smiled when she realized it was “One Week” by Barenaked Ladies.

“BNL?” She laughed, as she tugged out and set up one of the inflatable slides on one side of the yard.

Jeff shrugged. “They have _one_ good song. I’ve come to appreciate it.”

“Oh yeah? What inspired that?” Annie asked, bouncing slightly.

“Mommy!” Alanna called her, and Annie looked down at her daughter who was grunting and trying to pull the empty kiddie pool over to the end of the inflatable slide. “Daddy likes it ‘cause you do!” She tried to whisper, though she yelled the words at Annie.

Annie giggled, and looked over at Jeff, surprised to see the blush on his cheeks.

“Really?” She asked Alanna, though her eyes never left Jeff’s face.

“Uh-huh,” Alanna stated, nodding, her tongue poking out between her lips, as she continued to tug at the plastic pool.

“Mommy has… somewhat good taste in music,” Jeff teased, as he grabbed the Slip ‘N Slide to put it in place. When he looked up, their eyes caught, and held.

“Whoa! Are we interrupting?” An amused voice sounded from the side gate, and Annie turned her head and let out a squeal at who was standing there.

“Shirley! Britta!” She ran over and embraced Shirley, bouncing up and down the entire time. Then she and Britta hugged, and Annie gestured at the leather jacket the other woman wore.

“Really, Britta? Leather? At a water park?” She teased.

Britta rolled her eyes. “I don’t know about you and Jeff, Annie, but I’m trying to teach my kids that being a revolutionary doesn’t stop just because you’re going to have a swim.”

Annie glanced down at Britta and Ian’s sons: Chase and Guava, though on their birth certificates it was _Che_ and _Guevara_ (because Britta was still _the worst_ ) and smiled.

“Hello guys,” Annie smiled at them as she crouched down in front of them. “How are you boys doing?”

“Annie.” Britta shook her head. “Ian and I try not to pigeonhole our sons into gender labels. Please refer to them either by their names, or by the pronouns: _them_.”

Annie glanced up at Britta, then over her shoulder at Ian who rolled his eyes at her, and glanced at Britta affectionately, yet with obvious exasperation, and giggled slightly.

“Okay, Britta.”

“Tell your Aunt Annie, how you’re doing Che and Guevara,” Britta directed.

Both boys looked up at Britta then over at Annie. “Fine,” they both responded. Then, seeing Alanna, ran over to her.

“Lovely to be here, thanks for inviting us.” Ian nudged Britta forward. “Jeff, ol’ chap! Good to see you again.”

“You literally just saw me two days ago,” Jeff grumbled.

“Ahh, but what is 48 hours between friends, hey ol’ chum?” Ian chortled.

Annie shook her head and turned to greet Detective Butcher, who rolled down the ramp, and up onto the tiled patio area, his and Shirley’s ten-month old daughter, Mary, on his lap.

“Aww!” Annie said, pressing her fingers against her lips as she stared down at the pretty baby girl. “Oh my gosh, Shirley! She is so beautiful!”

“Why thank you, An-nie!” Shirley grinned, happily. “She’s just been blessed by the good Lord, with those looks. It was really His will that she look the way she does.”

Annie’s grin tightened as she nodded, then walked over to shake Detective Butcher’s hand. “Hi Detective Butcher, it’s good to see you again.”

“Mrs. Winger, how many times do I have to tell you to call me, Michael?” The older man told her, with a smile on his face, his hand rubbing Mary’s back gently.

Annie felt Jeff’s eyes on her, almost burning her skin, as well as everyone else looking at her, but she didn’t turn towards any of them, nor did she correct the detective about her name. “And I told you to call me, Annie.”

Detective Butcher acknowledged her words with a nod, then Annie turned towards the backyard, where inflatable slides, kiddie pools, bouncy houses, and more had been set up. Jordan, Elijah, and Ben had shown up at some point, and when Annie continued looking around, she bounced up and down in excitement when she saw Frankie, Craig Pelton, and…

“ABED! TROY!”

“Annie!!” The two young men exclaimed, rushing over to envelop her in a hug.

“Since we’re all back together, it could only mean one thing. Either our show has been picked up for another season, or this is the movie, where everything will be resolved,” Abed stated, his finger pointing upwards as he mulled over the situation.

Everyone muttered in agreement, used to Abed’s mutterings by now.

“Let’s go!” Alicia screamed out, throwing herself down the Slip ‘N Slide.

All of the adults laughed, and pretty soon the water park party was underway.

And if Annie found herself standing a little closer to Jeff as they enjoyed their makeshift Winger Water Park with their children, who could blame her?

  
  


* * * *

  
  


Later that night, after everyone had gone home, Annie held a newly bathed Alanna, dressed in her purple nightgown, in her arms, as she preceded Jeff, holding a sleeping Alicia, wearing her blue nightgown, in his arms, into the twins’ bedroom. She stepped over to place Alanna in the bed, tugging the covers up over her. Jeff did the same, and when they were both done, they stepped back towards the hallway.

“Night, Mommy. Night, Daddy,” Alanna muttered sleepily.

“Goodnight, Alanna,” Annie and Jeff stated simultaneously.

“Love you, Mommy and Daddy. So happy we a family again,” Alicia said around a yawn, and Annie kept her eyes on her daughter, though she felt Jeff’s gaze on her.

“Me too, honey. Love you.” Annie slid the door closed, then opened it a crack.

When she turned to face Jeff she found his eyes on her.

“I--”

Her words were cut off as Jeff gripped the back of her head, his fingers sinking into the loose strands, his arms wrapping around her waist. Annie moaned and reached up to clutch his head in her hands. They kissed furiously, passion overwhelming them.

Annie was ready. She was _sooo_ ready, but then…

Jeff sat her down on her feet and backed away. “I-I’m sorry. Um… goodnight, Annie,” he stated, then turned and hurried away to his bedroom.

Annie exhaled slowly, a slight whimper escaping her as she lifted her fingers to her lips.

“I knew that would happen,” Abed’s voice came from behind her, and Annie gasped, jumping slightly. She turned to face one of her best friends as he stood at the end of the hallway, wearing a blue-grey t-shirt, and a pair of _Spiderman_ pajama bottoms.

“Wha-huh?” Annie stammered, shaking her head.

“It’s not the right time in the season, or the movie, for you and Jeff to reconcile. The sexual tension isn’t high enough. Nothing has been talked about. There have been no arguments. Sides haven’t been taken. And neither of you have had to sit with some of us as we try to help your marriage.” He shook his head. “You still love each other, and you’re obviously the couple who has to end up together permanently so that our series can come to a successful conclusion, like Ross and Rachel, on _Friends_ , but we’re not there just yet.” He tilted his head as he studied her. “But don’t worry. It’s coming.”

“Th-thank you, Abed,” Annie whispered, emotion clogging her throat.”

“No problem.” He straightened, and turned to walk off. “Cool. Cool cool cool.”

Annie stood in the hallway alone, watching as he walked off, before she gave Jeff’s bedroom one last look, and headed back to the guesthouse to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!
> 
> And how happy are we that Trobed is back with the group?
> 
> See you next week for this story. And tomorrow-ish for The Greendale Alpha.
> 
> Shabbat Shalom!


	4. Day Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Failing Psychology  
> or  
> Where Britta is the worst... again, but Jeff and Annie are following the script.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this posted so late!! I had to get one of my wisdom teeth pulled, and it just threw off my whole weekend. Especially because I have to go and have another pulled later this month.
> 
> But thank you all soooo much for the comments and the kudos! Everytime I receive a kudos, or read a comment, it lets me know I'm not just writing into the void. So I appreciate you all so much for that. Thank you again!!

**Chapter Three**

**_Day Three_ **

  
  


Jeff backed away from the standing punching bag, bouncing on his toes, as he punched the air, before stepping back up to the training equipment. He punched and jabbed, swung and kicked. Left. Right. Left. Right. The muscles in his arms, shoulders, and back pulled, stretched, contracted and released. He pushed himself past the burn he felt in his limbs, his calves screaming out in pain, and kept moving.

_Stick and move. Stick and move._

As he moved around the red and black bag, memories from the day before flashed in his mind.

He thought of the Winger Water Park. The study group all being back together again. The evidence of their new directions in life seen in all of the new people who had joined them. Shirley had remarried and had a new baby. Britta and Ian were together and had two kids. And Troy and Abed were _finally_ together, openly, just like they’d all known they would be--even if Shirley had originally protested their relationship. Everyone was happy and in love. Even Frankie and Craig had found someone… sort of. Frankie was definitely happy with Vera, and Craig…

Jeff shook his head and chuckled. He would at least call Craig his friend, not just his boss. Though he was pretty sure there was something going on between Dean Pelton and Dean Spreck, and no one could tell him anything different. The only people who weren’t happy and in love were…

Him and Annie.

Jeff growled and slammed his right fist into the punching bag as he thought about his wife… _ex-wife_. He had to remember that. That she wasn’t his any more.

It pissed him off and broke his heart, more than he wanted to admit, that Annie wasn’t his anymore. That he couldn’t just hold her. Kiss her. Touch her. Make love to her anymore.

“You know, this would be the part of the movie where the sound of swelling music, reminiscent of a sort of boxing match would play, and we would see a montage of you working out around the gym, before you would storm out, climb into your car and race home. Where you would throw open the door, approach Annie, take her in your arms and kiss her passionately,” Abed’s voice came from behind him, and Jeff turned around with a smile ready to have what amounted to a conversation, with his dear friend. Instead, the smile dropped from his lips when he found himself facing Abed, Troy, and Britta. He looked around.

“What, no Shirley?” He mocked, with a quirked eyebrow and a smirk.

“She’s taking the first shift with Annie and the girls,” Abed stated.

Jeff frowned. “The first shift?”

Troy nodded, his eyes filling with tears. “Annie’s angry, and hurting, and she feels guilty. She needs someone to talk to her. To _really_ talk to her.”

Jeff clenched his jaw. “I know how _Annie_ feels. I feel the same way! She’s not the only one who--” He turned away from his friends and went back to slamming his fists against the punching bag.

“You’re not the only one who what, Jeff?” Britta pushed.

Jeff ignored her and continued to take out his anger, his rage, his hurt, frustration, his feelings of utter helplessness and failure, on the sand-filled bag in front of him. He grunted at the pain that radiated itself up his arms, and ignored the fact that his gloves had split, and so had the bag. He continued to punch and swing out until Troy and Abed grabbed his arms and dragged him over to the bench and forced him to sit down.

“Jeff. Jeff! Talk to us. Punching a phallic-shaped object as a source for your emotions is not going to fix things for you, Annie, or your girls,” Britta informed him.

Jeff growled. “Shut the hell up, Britta.”

He folded his arms across his chest as he glared at his friends. He knew, in some deep part of his psyche, that they were only trying to help. Knew that they were worried about him, and probably had been for some time, but he wasn’t the one with a problem. Not really. His problem was that Annie didn’t want him. His problem was that he’d had a family, one that had come about because of his chosen family of a group of misfits, and that family, the one where he was a dad who stayed, where his kids were happy, and his wife, his kids’ mother, didn’t have to worry about being hit.

But no matter how much he loved Annie, how much he loved Alanna and Alicia, his family had still fallen apart.

He felt like a failure and that wasn’t something that could be fixed with a conversation.

“Jeff, please just talk to us,” Britta encouraged.

Jeff narrowed his eyes at her and leaned forward towards her, resting his arms on his knees.

“What the hell do you want me to talk about?” He asked through gritted teeth.

“Tell us how you feel. It’s okay to have emotions, Jeff,” Troy said, wiping tears from his cheeks.

Jeff rolled his eyes. He loved Troy like a brother, but the young man was too easily given to his feelings.

“I feel annoyed because my friends are sticking their noses where they don’t belong. I’m angry because you interrupted my workout to try and make me rehash the demise of my relationship. I’m livid that you all think that what went wrong in my and Annie’s marriage is somehow my fault,” Jeff said, feeling his anger rise within him. He stood up and pushed his way between Abed and Britta, on his way upstairs. He needed to help Annie get lunch ready for the kids and everyone.

“Jeff! Don’t keep holding these feelings inside! You have to let them out or they’ll explode at the wrong moment!” Britta cautioned him with a raised voice.

At that, Jeff spun around and pierced her into place, his eyes blazing with a blue fire as he released his fury down on the three nosey people who thought they had a right to his every thought and feeling. That they could poke and prod him until he did what they wanted. Until he changed how they wanted him to.

 _Annie_ had changed him. Then after he became the perfect husband and father, she’d tossed it all away. Tossed him away.

“You want me to express my feelings? Then let’s talk about how helpless I feel! How I couldn’t do anything but hold my wife as our son died within her? Let me tell you about how guilty I feel because it’s my fault she lost the baby anyway because I was freaking out over having a third child! Or how about the fact that I can’t cry in front of her? Can’t let her know how much it devastated me to lose the baby because it would just make her feel bad? Or even worse, how I started watching her closely afraid she might do something stupid, snooping through her purse afraid she’d start doing drugs because she was sad.” He shook his head and realized he had been crying while he ranted. “I didn’t trust my wife and couldn’t help her through her grief because I don’t even know how to process my own. To the point where she left me, she left our girls here in this house and went off to _find herself_.

“Britta, you’re no longer the worst. I am.”

Jeff listened carefully, but no one responded to his emotional vomit. With a final swipe of his tears from his face, Jeff strode out of the room. Never once looking back.

  
  


* * * *

  
  


_Five Years Ago_

_Two Months After Annie Left For D.C._

Jeff paced the length of his apartment, his phone clutched tightly in his hand as he waited for her to respond. He’d been texting Annie all day, but she hadn’t responded back to him since the moment she informed him that she had to go to the doctor. He’d asked her why, afraid that something had happened to her that she was afraid to share, but she’d told him that she’d just contracted a stomach bug-- _no doubt due to eating non-Greendale food_ \--and he’d tried not to freak out ever since.

He’d been so distracted, he’d even agreed to have coffee with Craig the next day.

He _never_ agreed to have coffee with Craig without having someone else there as a buffer.

“Dammit, Annie. Text me back. Call me. Something. I’m going out of my fucking mind here,” he cursed, as he turned to do another trek across the floor of his condo. He was just about to send her another text message, his last one had been sent only five minutes before, but really, he was ramping up to send her one every thirty seconds or so, when there was a knock on the door.

He turned and glared at the wooden panel with a growl.

“I said _tomorrow_ , Craig!” He yelled without moving from where he stood in the middle of the floor.

“Jeff?” A melodic, high-pitched, hesitant voice called back, soft, hesitant, and filled with… fear?

“Annie?” He rushed over to the door, dropping his phone unforgotten, to the floor, as he hurried over to let her in. When he saw her in the open doorway of his condo, Jeff allowed his eyes to move over every inch of her body, trying to look for any visible ailments, wounds, scratches, anything to let him know why she had to go to the doctor that morning, and why she was currently standing in front of him… with bags and luggage surrounding her.

“Annie? Wh-what are y-you? Why are you?” He stammered, shaking his head.

“Jeff, my internship was put on hiatus, or suspended or… I forget the exact words they used, but I can’t finish it right now. I have to… the doctor’s appointment… they’re required to report back to the FBI, you know, because it was a sanctioned appointment… they were worried that I was contagious… but I’m not, no one can just _catch_ this, and… Jeff… I… I…”

Jeff reached out and put his hands on Annie’s shoulders pulling her into the apartment, when she stopped talking. He wanted to know what was wrong with her. He _needed_ to know, but he needed to get her inside first. Make her comfortable.

Wrap his head around the fact that she was _there_.

After bringing in all five bags of luggage--hadn’t she only left with one duffel and a purse two months ago?--Jeff looked around for Annie. She wasn’t standing where he’d left her, and he called out for her, as he moved around his space. Until he found her in his bedroom. Standing in front of his standing floor mirror, her shirt raised, the waistband of her leggings tugged down to the top of her pelvic area, staring at her image. Jeff opened his mouth to tease her about being as vain as he was. He wanted to tell her how beautiful she was, how happy he was that she was there, but then he saw it.

There was a slight bulge to her stomach, and Annie was rubbing it. Tenderly. Lovingly. Not as if she’d just eaten a lot and had an upset stomach, but as if there was something _living_ and _growing_ there.

“Annie?” He choked out her name, and she spun around with a gasp, dropping her shirt and tugging her pants back into place.

“Jeff! I--” She stopped when she stared at him, then she covered her face and burst into tears. Jeff was frozen in place for only a moment, before he rushed forward and took her into his arms. He couldn’t take a woman crying, and while it usually made him uncomfortable, Annie crying was like someone taking a hot poker and jabbing it into every orifice and pore of his body. He had to do something to _make. It. Stop._ Because it hurt _him_ too much to see her hurting.

So he tried to comfort her, even as he struggled to ignore the buzzing in his head. The buzzing that sounded a lot like him screaming. Yelling. Running.

The buzzing that sounded a lot like two words, repeated over and over, getting louder and louder.

_Annie’s pregnant._

_Annie’s pregnant._

_Annie’s PREGNANT._

_Annie’s PREGNANT._

_ANNIE’S PREGNANT._

_ANNIE’S PREGNANT._

_ANNIE’s FUCKING PREGNANT!_

“Jeff?” Annie sniffled, her face pressed against his chest.

“Y-yeah?” He asked, his voice sounding raw to his own ears.

“I’m pregnant,” she told him, and Jeff nodded.

“Yeah, I kinda, kinda figured that out.”

“It’s yours,” Annie’s voice sounded hesitant, afraid, and Jeff pulled back a bit to stare down at her.

“I know that, Annie. I know you. Know that I was the only one… at least for a while… and ever since… but…” He shook his head. “Did you think I would think differently? That I would think it was someone else’s?” He took a small step back. “Is that what you really think of me?”

Annie shook her head, her hands reaching out for him. “No! No, Jeff! Not at all, it’s just that, we only started sleeping together, or slept together, that one week before I left two months ago, and that’s when I got pregnant, but I’m… uh… I’m already showing.”

Jeff snorted. “Yeah. I saw.”

Annie rolled her eyes. “Jeff, that’s unusual.”

He frowned. “It is? But I mean, women’s stomach swell when they get pregnant, and Shirley…”

Annie waved her hands to dismiss his statement. “Shirley is different. First, Ben was a big baby, and she and Andre had actually been… hooking up much longer than she told us. They had one time, then nothing for a while, then she slept with Chang, then she and Andre started dating again, but it was that first time that did it.”

Jeff nodded. So much made sense now. He focused back on Annie. “So… you’re not supposed to be showing right now?”

Annie shook her head. “No. Once the doctor told me I was pregnant, he pointed out that I had a bit of a bump and asked why I hadn’t mentioned it. I told him that I thought it was just because of the food I was eating. And also due to the sadness and depression I was struggling with. You know, one of the signs of depression is a change in eating habits. I know people think that means people don’t eat, but…”

“Annie,” Jeff interrupted her. “Focus.”

She blinked and nodded. “Yeah, right. Sorry. I’ve been getting distracted easily lately. It’s been happening a lot. Anyway…” She waved her hands in the air. “When the doctor asked me when was the last time I had unprotected sex, I was about to tell him _never_ , but then I remembered our week together. I told him, and he said that I shouldn’t be showing already. So he scheduled me for an ultrasound.”

Something she’d said penetrated Jeff’s mind and he frowned. “Wait. Your doctor was a _man_? There was some man looking at you down there? All in between your legs? Touching you and…”

“Jeff!” Annie snapped her fingers. “This is not the time for you to be all jealous and stuff. I need you to listen. Besides, he literally stares at vaginas _all day_ , he said it was what “turned” him gay.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, he did an ultrasound, and Jeff... “ She stared at him, then blinked in awe, her face glowing with wonder and surprise.

“It’s twins, Jeff. We’re having twins.”

She grabbed his hands and placed it on her belly. Jeff stared down at his hands resting on that bulge. The one that currently housed the two babies that he’d made with Annie. Annie Edison. The woman of his dreams--or the dreams he hadn’t known he’d had, and immediately dismissed upon waking. The woman who accepted him how he was, and yet, inspired him to grow and change. To become better. Something no other woman had fully been able to do. The woman who taught him what love was, then not only accepted his love, but returned it back. The woman who inspired him to embrace their friends, and turn them all into a family.

The woman who was the mother of his unborn children.

Children.

Twins.

Two.

Babies.

_Holy shit._

Annie told him that he passed out and hit the ground before she could catch him, or was even aware that he was about to faint. Jeff wasn’t sure if he fully believed her, since he could see the mischievous twinkle in her blue eyes. But no matter what happened, Jeff couldn’t help the smile that spread across his lips, when he opened his eyes and found her sitting next to him. Her face filled with concern. One hand stroking his hair, the other…

Pressing his hand against her belly.

  
  


* * * *

  
  


_Present Day_

_The Winger House_

Jeff stood in the middle of the kitchen, a bottle of water clutched in his hand, as he gulped down the refreshing liquid, in deep, full gulps, until he finished it, and tossed the empty, plastic bottle into the recycle bin. Along with the other two bottles he’d just finished drinking. He inhaled deeply, adrenaline and rage still thrumming in his veins, and he leaned forward ro clutch the counter in front of him.

_Fuck._

_Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!_

His thoughts were filled with chaotic images, and words of profanity that he couldn’t actually say in his home without one or both of his girls hearing him. And while he couldn’t say the words to them, in his head Jeff was cursing out Troy, Abed, _and_ Britta. How _dare_ they try to poke and prod around in his mind, his emotions, his feelings.Who did they think they were? His therapist? Even Dr. Feldman knew there were some things he was _not_ ready to talk about. And one of them was the loss of his son.

 _Damn them_.

He lifted a hand to rub at the tears that burned his eyes, but refused to fall.

“Daddy?” Alicia’s voice reached him, and Jeff turned, looking down and found his precious twins standing next to him, their beautiful and cherubic faces turned up towards him. They stared at him with trust, with unconditional love, with concern, and Jeff felt his knees weaken.

He stumbled to the floor, and wrapped his arms around them both, hugging them tightly, as he sniffled and let silent tears roll down his cheeks.

A soft swish and sniffle reached his ears, and when Jeff looked up, he could have sworn he saw a piece of purple fabric disappear from view, but at that moment, he didn’t care. He _couldn’t_ care.

He needed this. Needed his girls. All three of them, but since he only had two, he would embrace them fully. One day, hopefully, he’d be able to hold Annie in his arms again, so they could cry together. Maybe. Probably.

Hopefully.

  
  


* * * *

  
  


Abed nodded and turned to look at Troy, Britta, and Shirley.

“They are following the formula perfectly. Our pushing and prodding has pushed the hero of the story into an emotional breakdown in front of two characters whose innocence and adorableness touches the audience deeply. It shows the depth of his character development, it shows the strength of not only his love for them, but the grief he has been hiding for so long. And as the script dictates, his lady love, the woman he is supposed to end up with in the end, was there to witness this expression of emotion. The very thing she wasn’t able to see before when she needed it. But seeing it now will help her to heal, and also to forgive him.” He nodded, his index finger pointing upwards, as he conveyed the details of what just happened to the rest of the group.

He pointed at Troy, Britta, and Shirley.

“You all played your roles perfectly. We are not here to push the story forward, as secondary characters, we are merely here to help the script along.” He nodded again.

“Secondary?” Britta scoffed. “Abed. I really don’t think we’re secondary at all. Why, in fact, I would say that we’re all the main characters in our own stories, and that we’re here to help Annie and Jeff heal from the trauma of the miscarriage they suffered, not to try and push them into a recon-reunification.”

“Oh, Brit-ta. It’s reconciliation,” Shirley corrected Britta with a shake of her head.

“Whatever, I knew that,” Britta huffed.

“Yes. Jeff and Annie need to heal, but through that, they will reconcile and get back together. It’s what the script dictates, Britta. So I’m afraid you're wrong again. And besides…” He tilted his head to the side. “Why would you not want them back together? Do you still harbor resentment at Annie because she was able to induce a need for true commitment, family, and love, when you served as merely a distraction for what he really wanted?”

“Abed!” Shirley gasped.

He turned to look at her. “Am I over describing and being coldy truthful again?”

“Very!”

He nodded, and looked back at Britta. “I apologize. However, I would like to point out that we are all in happy relationships. In love with our chosen partners. With families.” He looked at Troy and offered him a small smile. “But Jeff and Annie are not. Can we truly call ourselves their friends, their family, if we are content to let them be miserable when what they need, and want is each other? Our family is fractured, we must do all we can to repair it.”

“Awww, Abed,” Shirley cooed.

“Did you just come up with that, man?” Troy asked, a soft, adoring grin on his face.

Abed shook his head. “No. I believe I heard it on an episode of _The Fosters_.”

They all chuckled and Britta reached out to touch Abed’s arm for just a moment. “Thank you for that, Abed. I’m still working on getting myself together. There’s still a part of me that resents Jeff and Annie’s relationship. Not because I loved Jeff, or even wanted to, but because Annie was young, and beautiful, and so… _good_ , even in spite of everything she went through. She wasn’t hard and resentful and bitter like me, and because of that, the guy who I thought was on my level with the cynicism and everything else, started to grow and change, and that wasn’t because of me. So thank you for calling me out on that.”

Abed shook his head. “Your need for things to people to never change so that it justifies your bitterness and need to guard yourself, is both predictable, and a little boring. Your character has grown and developed beyond this, Britta, and it’s okay.”

She nodded and gave him a quick hug. “Thanks, Abed.”

Abed merely blinked at her, before he turned back towards the kitchen where Jeff was now handing the twins popsicles, a smile on his face, that widened even more when Annie stepped into the room, and he handed her a purple one.

Yes, things were on the right track for Jeff and Annie. Which was what he needed. Abed needed everything to be just right in his world, the script back on track, so that when he delivered his news, it would not cause too much of a stir.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm... I don't know why I had Abed be so harsh with Britta, but I kind of felt like he was the only one she would take it from and actually listen to, and I sort of felt like Britta has spent so much time trying to "fix" other people, that she never actually allowed herself the time to get the help she needed as well. Especially in regards to men, Jeff, other women, Annie, and Jeff and Annie.
> 
> Plus I just kind of noticed all of the looks Britta gave Jeff and Annie throughout the series whenever they were being cute together or talking, or implying that there was something deeper going on between them, and I figured that even with her being married and having her own kids, that wouldn't be something she just "got over" so easily. You know?
> 
> Anyway, the next upload is The Greendale Alpha. Hopefully I can get back on schedule.
> 
> Thank you all for commenting and reading!


	5. Day Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeff is called away and Annie spends time with the twins... and the Winger family gets two new additions, that change the family forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is longer than the others because I couldn't figure out where to cut it off. So enjoy reading it! Thank you so much for your comments and kudos. I so appreciate them.

**Chapter Four**

**_Day Four_ **

  
  


Annie startled awake in bed, kicking at the sheets, her hair in a wild tangle around her face, at the sound of a knock on the front door of the guesthouse. Climbing out of bed, she stumbled through the house, kicking at the twins’ toys, grumbling at how dark it still was outside, and cursing whoever stood on the other side of the door. Finally she flipped the locks, turned the handle and tugged on the doorknob.

“J-Jeff?” She stammered as she looked up at the sight of her husband, her _ex-husband_ , her very sexy, very shirtless, very _sweaty_ , ex-husband.

_Damn. How is he still this hot?_

“Hey. Sorry. Did I wake you?” He asked, breathless, his exercise shorts hanging low on his hips, and Annie found herself watching the trail of a bead of sweat and it drip from his temple, over his jaw, down his neck, over his collarbone, down between his glorious pecs, over his yummy abs, down…

Down…

Down…

“Annie!” Jeff snapped his fingers in front of her face and she gasped and swallowed thickly. She blinked up at him.

“W-what? Huh? What were you saying?”

Jeff smirked. “I was saying that I got a call from Vera. There were a bunch of protestors that got arrested out at Den U. So I’m going to go and meet her down at the jail. We’re going to find out the charges. Post some bail. Set up some dates for arraignment. You know,” he shrugged. “Same old, same old.”

Annie nodded. “Okay. Right. Yeah. So… you’re here, because?” She leaned against the open door and blinked tiredly at him. She jolted internally when she noticed the soft and tender look enter his eyes, and leaned toward him slightly when he reached up to push some of her hair back behind her ear.

“I know we have Troy and Abed sleeping over in the house, but I just figured you’d want to…” He shrugged.

Annie blinked in surprise and acknowledgment and bounced slightly. “Yes! You’re right. Absolutely. Um… let me just grab some clothes and stuff and…”

She stopped when Jeff reached out to touch her shoulder. “Hey.” He smiled at her. “Calm down. I still have to go and shower my run off of me, and get dressed, trim this beard, do my hair…”

Annie tilted her head to the side and offered him a teasing grin. “So you’re saying I have about three or four hours?”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.” Jeff rolled his eyes, before smirking at her in return. “Just, come over whenever you’re ready. And set up in our-- _the_ \--bedroom. The girls usually come in there, in the morning and sleep another ten or fifteen minutes with me, because…” He glanced away and swallowed, and realization clobbered Annie over the head.

_Because I’m not here and the girls know you all miss me._

She blinked and glanced at the floor. “Jeff, you know I still--”

“Yeah, so, um… I’m going to go shower. You ladies have a great day.” He turned and hurried away, and Annie watched him go, pain slicing through her heart, leaving it in bleeding ribbons in her chest cavity. Her face grew hot, her eyes burning, and she lifted her hand to cover her mouth as she sobbed harshly.

_I still love you._

  
  


* * * *

  
  


“Mommy!”

The second time Annie was startled awake that morning, it was a happy wakeup. Alanna and Alicia stood holding hands in the doorway before they raced over to the bed. Each of them grabbed the tiny stairs that were pushed against either wall, and for the first time Annie noticed how much the bedroom she’d shared with Jeff had changed. Where once the room had been a sanctuary for the two of them, a place where they escaped when the girls were asleep, a place where work wasn’t allowed, where they cuddled, and made love, and talked…

It now looked like the bedroom of a single father who really welcomed his daughters in the room with him. There were tiny desks in the corner. The stairs the girls could push up to the side of the bed to climb up onto the mattress. On the nightstands were coloring books, crayons, and diverse Barbie dolls. When Alicia grabbed the remote to turn on the tv, Annie immediately went to take it, in order to make sure it wasn’t on an “adult” channel that maybe Jeff had been watching the night before.

Or something equally disturbing, like news coverage of the protests and arrests.

One of the biggest things that Jeff and Annie had agreed upon when they’d begun to prepare for the twins, was that they would try to downplay what they did for their kids. Annie spent much of her work life dealing with paperwork, microscopes, and other types of scientific equipment, but there were times when she went to dangerous scenes to gather evidence, or where she was called in to study maudlin and disturbing imagery.

Concurrently, Jeff spent most of his day operating within the ridiculousness of Greendale academia. But there were times, like that morning, where he had to go and deal with cases, and clients, and issues that were sensitive, and could be dangerous, and when they were together, he would come home drained, his eyes bloodshot, hair mussed. He would give her and the twins a small smile, grab a glass and his bottle of Scotch, and go lock himself in his office for half an hour. He would come out then, brush his teeth, place a kiss on all of their foreheads, then go down in the basement, workout, and come back, his familiar Winger smirk on his face, back in his original spirits.

So they always tried to protect the still innocent minds of their young daughters. But, Annie needn’t have worried. The television was already set to Disney Junior, and the girls settled in on pillows that they both grabbed from the bottom drawer of the nightstands on either side of the bed, next to her. One pillow was purple, and the other was blue. As they both cuddled her, with happy sighs, their big blue eyes fixed on the television screen, Annie realized that Jeff had done everything that he could to make things easier for Alanna and Alicia, so that their lives didn’t appear to be too chaotic. Too different.

Too sad.

For the first time, since perhaps the moment she stood in the Denver courthouse to get the papers for their divorce, Annie started to wonder if she had done the right thing. She knew Jeff loved their kids. She even knew, deep, deep down inside of herself, that Jeff still loved her. So what had led her to filing for a divorce?

“Mommy?” Alanna said her name softly and Annie pulled herself out of her inner musings so she could focus on her children.

“Yes, baby?”

“I’m hungry,” Alanna muttered, sticking her thumb in her mouth.

“Me too,” Alicia agreed. “I wan egg whites.”

Annie gasped and looked at her daughter in surprise. “You want egg whites?” Alicia nodded. “Why?”

“Cause Daddy eats ‘em.”

Alanna tugged on Annie’s left arm. “Me too.”

Annie groaned and shook her head. “He’s turned my children into monsters,” she murmured to herself.

“I no monstuh!” Alicia grumbled.

“Me neivah!” Alanna agreed with her sister, before her eyes filled with tears. “Mommy. You don’t love us cause we are monsters?”

“What?! No!” Annie gathered her daughters close to her. “I love you both so much. And you’re _not_ monsters. Mommy was just joking!”

_Ugh. I forgot I have to be careful about what I say around them. The therapist said they’d be more sensitive right now._

“Not funny,” Alanna groused.

“Nope,” Alicia agreed with her sister, shaking her head.

Annie laughed and placed a kiss on the top of each of their heads.

“You’re right. That wasn’t funny at all. Mommy is so sorry. Now…” She brushed their hair back from their foreheads.

“Who wants some of Daddy’s egg whites?”

“I do! I do! I do!”

  
  


* * * *

  
  


_5 Years Ago_

_First Trimester_

_3 Months Along_

_Jeff Winger’s Apartment_

“I should be graduating from the FBI internship program right now, now watching you make those disgusting egg whites,” Annie complained, adjusting the clothespin she had placed on her nose that morning.

“I have to keep my strength up, and keep my body in shape, Annie. I mean,” Jeff gestured to his body. “I love you, but I refuse to be one of those men who gains weight when his woman does while pregnant. You need something to look at and touch while you grow our twins inside of you.”

Annie narrowed her eyes and growled at him. “Oh please, Jeff. You’re just trying… trying... “ She shook her head. “You just want to stay hot so you can leave me!” She burst into tears, dropping her head onto her folded arms on the dining room table.

The logical part of her brain spoke up and pointed out that she was having an intense mood swing, but the rest of her, the parts currently being ruled by her hormones, thought Jeff was an _a-hole_ because he was planning to leave her once she got really fat with _his_ children. That part quickly went from being devastated by that possibility, to enraged by his callousness. She felt him come up behind her, and she pushed his hands away.

“Don’t touch me you… you… pointy-faced… _jerk!_ ” She yelled. She pointed at him. “You are planning on ditching me once I am too big for you to still find attractive, and then you’re going to go and sleep with some redheaded, big boobed _bimbo_ , or some flighty big boobed flight attendant who’s a brunette, or… or… _Britta!_ ”

She gasped and covered her mouth at her words, her eyes widening as she stared at Jeff, who narrowed his eyes at her, tilting his head to the side.

“Really, Annie? After everything? Still?” He shook his head, then sat down in a chair at the dining room table, then grabbed her, lifting her from her chair and pulling her down on his lap. He stroked her face and smiled up at her gently, before lifting her hands and placed a gentle kiss on the backs of each one.

“Britta was a mistake. From day one. We were both broken people who reached out to each other in our brokenness. It wasn’t a _relationship_ , it was just two people who were looking to not _feel_ anything by focusing on the physical.” He shook his head again. “After the Transfer Dance I was… confused. Lost. Not because of the declarations of love given by Britta and Michelle, because neither of them really meant it, but because of the kiss you and I had shared. It wasn’t _just_ a kiss. And it wasn’t a mistake--though I tried to tell you that it was. I felt something. I _always_ feel something with you. Whether we’re kissing, holding hands, just spending time together… I longed for you, I wanted you in a way I’d never wanted anyone else. And that scared me. It _still_ scares me. But I made a promise to myself, that once I had you… once you were mine… I would never let you go.”

He brushed a hand over her belly and smiled softly. “And I don’t care how big you get, or how tiny you are…” He took a deep breath. “I don’t even care about the age thing anymore.”

When Annie quirked an eyebrow he huffed out a laugh. “Okay, I don’t care _as much_ anymore. But you are mine. All mine. And that’s it. That’s forever. I won’t ever want someone else. You’re it for me, Annie Edison.”

And she’d believed him in that moment.

It’s just too bad that years later her belief in his words would disappear.

  
  


* * * *

  
  


Annie, Troy, Abed, Alanna, and Alicia stood in front of the massive tv Jeff had in the family room, focused intently on their characters on the screen.

“Everyone ready?” Annie asked.

The gunshot exploded and everyone began running in place, jumping when hurdles appeared, trying to beat each other, and yet, each of them trying to keep pace with the two youngest members of their “track meet.” They were so focused on their events in this virtual Olympic game, that none of them noticed Jeff, Vera, Frankie, and two other people entering the house. It wasn’t until the race was over, and they all collapsed to the ground, breathing hard and laughing, that Annie glanced up and noticed Jeff, wearing his three piece suit— _yummy—_ and his other guests.

“Jeff!” She gasped.

“Daddy! Vewa!” Alicia screamed and ran over to them, followed by Alanna. “Fwankie!”

“Hey girls!” Jeff smiled and scooped both little girls up into his arms simultaneously, bouncing them for a moment, before he placed them back on their feet. They both turned and got hugs from Vera and Frankie, before waving shyly at the very young black girl and young white boy next to her. They both looked battered, bruised, and dirty, their eyes looked haunted, and Annie felt her heart grip at their expressions.

Without thinking, she rose and walked over to them and held out her hand.

“Hello, my name is Annie Winger, I’m Jeff’s wife, and these are our girls, Alanna and Alicia. You guys look like you could use a drink, and maybe some change of clothes?” She offered, turning her gaze to Jeff’s face. He looked a little surprised by her words and it took a moment for Annie to realize what she’d said. She swallowed and felt her skin flush hot at her embarrassment, she opened her mouth to correct herself, but was stopped when the young girl spoke up.

“My name is Shyla. But everyone calls me, Shy. This is Barry, my boyfriend. Thank you so much Mrs. Winger, I would love a glass of water,” she said, her expression full of gratitude.

“Me too,” Barry spoke up.

Annie nodded and actively tried _not_ to look over at Jeff. “Well, why don’t I get you both some water. Frankie? Vera? Would you two like a drink?”

Vera smiled at her, though Annie noticed her glancing over in Jeff’s direction. “You know what? With all of the talking we did today, I wouldn’t mind a bottle of water as well.”

Annie nodded, and glanced over at Frankie. “Yes, water would be good. But let me come and help you.”

Annie gestured at her, and they headed off to the kitchen. Annie knew that Frankie was simply waiting for the right moment to ask her questions, so she focused on grabbing four glasses and four bottles of water.

 _I’m so glad Jeff never moved everything out of my reach here in the kitchen,_ she thought to herself, with a small smile at his thoughtfulness.

“Annie, I must admit to a bit of confusion,” Frankie said, her voice soft and full of concern.

“Hmm?” Annie turned to her. “About what?” She asked though she knew exactly what Frankie was talking about.

“I was under the assumption that your marriage to Jeff was over?”

Annie sighed and nodded. “It is.”

“Ah. I see.” Frankie bobbed her head in acknowledgement. “And so, what was that about in there just a few moments ago?”

Annie shook her head and rubbed her forehead in frustration and distress. “I don’t know. I just… I…” She folded her arms across her chest and lowered her head as tears filled her eyes. “I spoke without thinking.”

“Hmm…” Frankie hummed. “See… I don’t think that is exactly true, Annie. I think you knew, or some part of you knew, exactly what you were saying. And you meant it.”

Annie gasped and looked up at Frankie, as tears rolled silently down her pale cheeks.

“Oh, Annie.” Frankie sighed sadly, before taking Annie’s hand in comfort. “Do you remember how concerned I was years ago about your relationship with Jeff?”

Annie nodded. It had been a sore spot for their relationship. Especially once she and Jeff told everyone that she was pregnant.

“But, rather than hold you back, he lifted you up. He encouraged you to finish getting your degree, to finish your internship after you had the girls. He married you, but never pleaded with you for you to give up any of your dreams for him. Instead, he supported them. All of them.” Frankie gave her a small smile. “He quite surprised me. Indeed, he surprised all of us, and probably himself as well.” She stepped closer to Annie and lowered her voice even more.

“But this divorce… when you told me you were doing it, I asked if you were sure. You said you were. You cried and pleaded with me to back you up, to be on your side, and I was, though I did not agree with it. And now, it seems that you are regretting it. Is that what’s happening here, Annie? Are you regretting divorcing Jeffrey?”

Annie sighed, then brushed the wetness from her face. She took a deep breath, then nodded.

“I am. So much. I still love him, and I believe he still loves me, but I think… I think I hurt him so much that now, he won’t want me back.”

Frankie laughed and shook her head. “Oh, Annie. Anyone can see that Jeff is still a fool for you. All you would have to do is crook your finger at him and he would come running. But, don’t do it until you’re ready.”

She stepped towards the counter and grabbed the bottles of water, before looking back at Annie.

“And don’t do it until you’re ready to finally deal with the _real_ reasons that led you to that courthouse in the first place.”

  
  


* * * *

  
  


“So all the protestors that were there were either adults, or young people whose parents were there, or on their way, except these two here,” Jeff said, indicating Barry and Shyla.

Vera nodded. “Right, and when we asked them, we found out that they are both runaways from their group home.”

Annie gasped and put her hand up to her chest. “Oh no.” When she looked over at Shyla and Barry, both teens dropped their heads in embarrassment, or shame. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Well, they released them both into my care,” Jeff stated then, and Annie turned to look at him with wide eyes. He shrugged his shoulders and gave her a sheepish look. “The people who run the group home said that they couldn’t come back. Apparently this is the third time they’ve run, and they don’t want them to return. Vera and Frankie made some calls to CPS, they’re looking for somewhere to put them, but they feel as though they’ll be safe here since I’m a licensed foster parent and--”

“You got licensed?” Annie interrupted.

Jeff blushed. “Well, yeah. We said we were…” He stopped and looked around before clearing his throat and continuing. “But since Shyla is fifteen and Barry here is seventeen…”

Annie looked around when Vera and Frankie hummed in disappointment and a shared understanding. “What?”

“We’re close enough to aging out that they don’t really care about trying to find us permanent placement,” Barry muttered.

“Oh no,” Annie whispered. “That’s so sad and wrong, and… why isn’t someone doing something about this? We should do something. Maybe we can call people? Or do a rally or…” She stopped when Jeff chuckled and placed his hand on her wrist to stop her rambling.

“Easy, Norma Rae,” he stated with a wide grin. “There are a lot of people working on this issue. Right now, the biggest thing we can do to help Barry and Shy is to give them a place to sleep for the next couple of nights, or weeks, and work with CPS to find someplace permanent for them.”

“I think it would be best if Troy and I moved out to the guesthouse with Barry,” Abed spoke up, causing everyone to turn to him.

Annie frowned then realized that it would be too much of a temptation to have the two twins sleeping in the same house, on the same floor. She glanced over at Jeff to find him watching her with consideration. She nodded.

“Um… yes, I think that would be best. Troy and Abed can take the master over in the guesthouse and give Barry the other room. Shyla can take the guestroom. Upstairs,” she suggested. Which would leave her with the remaining guestroom downstairs. The one that was directly below the master bedroom.

“Alright, sounds like a plan. I wish we could have offered one of them a room, but we’re not licensed and my little brother is in that room until he graduates from college,” Vera stated.

Jeff smiled at her and nodded. “I know, V. It’s fine.” He turned to the two teens. “Well, let’s get you both settled.”

Annie rose quickly and grabbed a notepad from the sideboard drawer. “Let me get your sizes and I’ll go and get you both some clothes while you shower and everything,” she offered.

She smiled gently at both of them as they divulged their information, then she headed towards the front door to grab her keys and purse.

“Mommy!” Alanna and Alicia ran up to her.

“Hey girls, you want to come and go shopping with Mommy?” She asked.

“Yes!”

“Okay, let’s go!” She helped the girls put their shoes on, then waved at everyone in the house as she escorted them out of the front door.

Once she got both little girls settled in their booster seats, she headed off towards Target.

“Mommy?” Alanna said her name from the backseat.

“Yes, sweetie?”

“Who the big kids with Daddy?”

Annie bit her lower lip as she tried to figure out a gentle way of answering that question. “They’re two kids who don’t have a mommy or daddy, but they decided to try and help other people stop bad people from hurting other people just because they’re different. But because they don’t have a mommy or a daddy, they didn’t have anywhere to go when Daddy showed up to help them.”

“So they stay wit’ us?” Alicia asked.

Annie nodded as she parked the car. “Yes honey. At least for a little while.”

“Okay,” the twins said in unison, and Annie breathed a sigh of relief that she’d been able to get through that rather difficult conversation without too much discomfort.

After making sure the girls were wearing their masks: purple for Alanna and blue for Alicia, and her mask was resting comfortably on her face as well, Annie led the girls into the building and grabbed a shopping cart as well. She and the girls walked through the store, both of them sitting in the main part of the shopping cart as she consulted the sheet with Shyla and Barry’s sizes on them. When shopping for Shyla, Annie consulted Alanna and Alicia about what they thought was “cool” and “cute.”

Lifting up a purple shirt with Wonder Woman on the front, she held it up in front of her.

“What about this one?”

“I like it, Mommy!” Alanna said.

Alicia blew a raspberry and folded her arms in front of her chest. Annie frowned in concern.

“You don’t like it, Alicia?”

“I like blue like _Daddy_ . I _hate_ puwple!” She stated stubbornly. Annie’s heart clenched, because while she knew it was just her daughter liking a different color than her, she also knew that it was Alicia’s way of showing her how upset she was by the divorce. In the only way a four year old knew how.

“Okay, we can get Shyla a blue shirt too, how about that?” She suggested.

Alicia dropped her arms and looked at Annie with hope in her eyes. “Weally?”

Annie smiled and nodded. “Of course, sweetie. As a matter of fact, let’s get blue and yellow…”

“And green!” Alanna suggested.

Annie laughed. “And green. And purple and white and black and…”

“Owange!” Alicia suggested as well. Annie clapped and bounced.

“Exactly! We’ll get Shyla a bunch of clothes in a lot of different colors, but you both have to help, okay?”

“Okay!”

The shopping for Shyla went well then, and Annie was feeling pretty optimistic, until she pulled her cart into the “Young Men’s” section. Her mind flashed with an image of Jeff shopping with the little boy who should have been their son. Teaching him how to ride a bike. Teaching him how to shave. How to fix his hair _“just right_ ”...

She swallowed the tears that threatened to spill over and gasped when she felt a soft, gentle touch on her hand. When she looked up, both Alanna and Alicia where touching her hand and looking at her with wide eyes filled with comfort.

“It’s okay Mommy,” Alanna whispered.

“Yah. Daddy say owuh bwova is an angel,” Alicia told her with a nod.

Annie sniffled and walked around the cart to hug both girls and kissed their foreheads as best as she could through her mask.

“Thank you, girls. Yes he is.”

  
  


* * * *

  
  


When they got home Annie passed out the copious number of bags to Shyla and Barry and welcomed their hugs with a big grin. A feeling of happiness and _glee_ , yes, glee, though that was a word they tried not to use after they’d all left Greendale, soared through her being. She wrapped her arms around herself and sighed happily. She placed her purse on the hook next to the door, and her car keys in the bowl, a move so familiar to her, that it brought a pang to her heart, before she took a deep breath and headed towards the living room where the girls were talking to Jeff.

“And ven we help Mommy buy cloves for our new brova and sister!” Alanna said happily.

“Yah, Daddy! We had fun!” Alicia agreed.

Annie gasped as she stood in the doorway and her eyes caught Jeff’s. She was confused by the expression she saw on his face, but knew that it wasn’t the time to ask him.

Maybe tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should be well enough to write another chapter next week, so you only get this one long one. If I'm not, then the next time I can write I will give you 3 or 4 chapters.


	6. Day Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeff and Annie meet up in his office and... reconnect...  
> A scene that has not been approved by Abed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is posting late, but I'm still a bit out of sorts after... everything. So I hope you all will forgive me for posting things late probably for the next week. Especially Tuesday (the His Grace story) because I have a follow-up appointment at the doctor's.

**Chapter Five**

**_Day Five_ **

  
  


Jeff couldn’t believe that it had only been five days since Annie had returned to the house. So much had happened in that time, that it felt as if it had been weeks or months since the day he’d opened the front door and saw her standing there. Just as beautiful as always. Her Disney eyes shining with emotions that he understood and was confused by.

Annie Edison. Formerly Annie Winger.

His ex-wife.

The one and only love of his life.

It was thoughts of his former pixie, brunette beauty, which had him momentarily distracted when he got up early that morning, and walked, bare-chested, in only a pair of boxer briefs, down the hallway into his office. He’d planned on getting a little work done before the twins got up and decided that they needed him to make them breakfast, or watch cartoons with them, or do their hair, or wash one of their stuffed animals, or any other number of things that caused his tiny people to require his presence or “Daddy skills” early in the morning. He scratched his chest and yawned as he stepped inside of the room. He blinked in surprise at the appearance of the light on his desk shining brightly.

“Jeff!” Annie’s gasp stunned him even more, and he turned to find her curled up on the chaise he’d had put there, especially for her, years ago. Back when they couldn’t stand to be away from each other. When they were practically attached at the hip.

“A-Annie?” He grunted. “Um… what are you… what are you doing here?” He looked around, his rather tired gaze taking in the sight of the Colorado sun slowly coming up over the horizon, the law, humanities, history, civil rights, humanitarian, and even medical texts illuminated and gleamed in the light from the sun. The cherry wood furniture: his desk where his laptop, iPad, desktop computer, and iHome all sat, the table where he would sit and pore over books and texts in order to do research, the six bookshelves: two on either wall, and one against one wall at the end of the chaise, and the other at the head, both which had been filled with Annie’s books. They stood empty now, and looking at them now, with only framed photographs of Annie with the twins, Annie pregnant with the twins, Annie giving birth to the twins, Annie sleeping with the twins…

Annie and him getting married…

Jeff felt an insane urge to drink, and despaired, once again, that he’d had a designated spot where he would drink now. And it wasn’t in his “private” office upstairs. It was in his “mancave” downstairs. A room which really wasn’t a need to escape his wife and kids, so much as it was a place for him to go when he needed to escape the world. He hadn’t gone there when he’d awaken that morning because it was just next to the guest bedroom downstairs where Annie had been sleeping. It had been too much of a temptation.

Annie. Sleeping.

Annie. In lingerie.

Annie. Possibly naked.

Annie. Naked. Maybe horny.

So he’d decided to get some work done. Shyla and Barry’s cases, as well as that of all of the other protestors, were of paramount importance to him. And yet, as if she were haunting him, there Annie was, wearing a pink-flowered nightgown with its matching robe, one fuzzy pink slipper resting on her right foot, the other on the floor next to her. Her hair settled down in loose waves around her shoulders, and as Jeff stared at her, he found himself fighting against the urge to run his fingers through the silky tendrils. Just like he used to.

“I… um… I couldn’t sleep, so I—” She shrugged.

He nodded as he stepped fully into the room. “You came up here to read, like you used to.” He paused, his mouth opening and closing as he stumbled over his thoughts and words. He hadn’t meant to say that, he hadn’t even wanted to  _ think _ it, and yet…

Neither of them spoke. Both remembering the time when they would unintentionally meet up in Jeff’s office. Annie to read, and Jeff to work. Though sometimes it was Annie working, and Jeff reading. And when the twins came it was the two of them, reading to the girls, after Annie came looking for him.

“I… can… um… go,” Annie stammered. “You know… if me being here is too…” she waved her hands between them, and shrugged.

Jeff shook his head. “No!” He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean… no. It’s fine.” He shuffled his feet, and glanced around the room, feeling slightly untethered from the rest of the world.

He glanced up at Annie, watching discreetly as she frowned at the Kindle Paperwhite she held in her hands. He was pretty sure that she wasn’t reading, and he was certain that he wouldn’t be able to settle his mind down enough in order to get any work done. So he found himself wandering around the room, only stopping when he felt Annie’s slim-fingered, delicate hand, settle on his thigh.

He turned to look at her, and once he did, it was as if he were being zapped by all of the pent-up emotions and the feelings of want, desire, need, and  _ yearning _ , that he’d been trying to keep buried since the moment she first left. And the second she first returned. His anger at her giving up on their marriage, on them, on  _ him _ , after everything… after all the years she’d spent fighting for him to become a better person, to be a better man, the fact that she’d just…  _ quit _ , had hurt him and angered him more than he expected.

That hurt and that anger, combined with the desire, want, and  _ longing _ , collided inside of him. And if the darkening of Annie’s eyes was anything to go by, she was feeling the same.

Jeff reached down, lifted Annie up into his arms, groaning as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He slammed his lips down on hers, wrapping her up into his embrace, as he walked towards the door to his office.

He pressed it closed.

Locked it.

And held Annie up against it.

Then, he turned off any part of his mind that told him what he was doing was wrong and ill-advised—a voice that sounded mysteriously like Abed’s—and he lost himself in her. In Annie’s kisses, her whimpers, her groans, her whines, her moans. The scent, touch, and taste of her skin, of her core. He lost himself in her body.

He lost himself in her. Again.

And again.

And hours later, when his ears picked up the sound of the twins coming out of their bedrooms, Jeff tensed as he realized that while he’d lost himself in Annie…

He wasn’t sure if he’d ever find himself again.

  
  


*** *** *** ***

  
  


_ 5 Years Ago _

_ Second Trimester _

_ 6 Months Along _

_ Denver University _

_ Law Department _

_ Office of Civil & Human Rights _

  
  


Jeff rubbed his eyes and ignored Vera where she sat on the other side of the office, and prayed that the acetaminophen he’d taken fifteen minutes before kicked in shortly. He and Vera had been working on the case of a forty year old teacher, who had fallen in love with a married thirty year old student. The two had an affair, the married student got pregnant, but refused to leave her husband, at which point the teacher failed the student and began levying various complaints and disciplinary actions against her. The student had filed a harassment report against the teacher at the behest of her husband, which was when the dean had gotten involved…

And had expelled the student for “Conduct Unbecoming.”

Jeff and Vera had decided to take the case months before, even pulling in some of the DU students to act as paralegal interns. They had been doing all that they could, but that day, for some reason, neither of them could focus. He wasn’t sure what Vera’s problem was, but he knew what his issue was.

A petite, gorgeous, very  _ pregnant _ brunette who kept texting him or calling him in order to tell him what she was craving, and asking him to bring it home to her. It was everything from Sour Patch Kids to milkshakes to chicken sandwiches to popcorn, and so much more. At the rate Annie was going, Jeff thought it might have been easier for him to just walk into the grocery store and buy one of everything.

As a matter of fact…

He groaned as his phone chimed with a text notification once again, and ignored Vera’s giggle.

“Hush,” he told her as he picked up the phone.

**baby mama: Call me please!**

“She’s asking for me to call her,” he complained.

“Well then,” Vera smiled at him, turning the page of the legal text she held, before flipping back the waist long, black and blonde strands of her braided hair. “I guess you better call her back then.” Vera continued reading, her ankle-booted feet resting on top of her desk, the perfect complement to the black and grey-striped pantsuit she was wearing, with its pearl grey, silk top.

Jeff chuckled, then proceeded to do as he’d been told. He called Annie.

“J-Jeff?” Annie’s voice sounded small and scared, and Jeff’s heart began to pound in his chest.

“Annie? What’s wrong?” He asked, suddenly afraid that something had happened and gone wrong.

“I’m sorry, Jeff. I had an accident…”

Jeff hadn’t waited for her to speak any further, before he’d grabbed his things and had run off.

Once he’d used “ _ Find My Phone _ ” to locate where Annie was, he felt a little silly for the way he’d taken off. Annie wasn’t at home, or in the hospital, she was at MAACO Auto Body Repair Shop after having been rear-ended pulling out of the parking lot of the complex where the condo was located.

In his car.

His  _ Lexus _ .

Jeff wasn’t sure if he was more concerned about her or his car.

No… wait. He knew. It was his car—her. Yeah. Definitely Annie.

And when he stepped into the autobody shop, the moment he saw her sitting in the waiting area, her eyes red rimmed, her pale face splotchy, twisting her fingers together, then rubbing her palms along the very prominent, very large bulge of her pregnancy belly, he knew that she was the most important thing to him. Her and the babies she was carrying within her.

“Baby? Are you okay?” He asked as he hurried over to her. He lowered himself onto his knees in front of her chair and placed one hand on her right knee, and the other on the side of her face.

“Jeff?” Annie breathed out, before leaning forward, resting her forehead on his shoulder, and sobbing harshly.

Jeff wrapped his arms around her, and ran his hand up and down her back, his fingers stroking her hair. His heart was slowly beginning to return to normal now that he knew that she was okay. He took a moment and simply held her as she wept.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispered against the top of her head.

“I was so scared,” Annie whispered back.

“Scared of what?” Jeff asked. He pressed kisses along her temple and the side of her forehead, pulling her towards him until she was sitting on his lap.

“I felt a cramp. A pain, in my lower abdomen,” Annie confessed softly and Jeff felt his own stomach clench in fright. He pulled away to look down at her, his hands involuntarily tightening on her. Annie glanced up and shook her head, a small smile on her face.

“I’m okay,” she reassured him. “I called the doctor, and before they even asked more than three questions, I felt both of our babies moving and kicking inside of me.” She sniffled and wiped her eyes. But it scared me. I was so afraid that I was either losing the babies or that I was going into labor all alone.” Annie shook her head. “I can’t lose our babies, Jeff, and I can’t deliver them without you.”

Jeff sighed in relief, then tilted her head up, by pinching her chin lightly. He stared into her eyes, then pressed his mouth against hers in a soft, tender kiss. Once he’d released her lips, he smiled at her.

“You won’t lose our babies, Annie. And I will never,  _ ever _ leave you.”

And it was a promise that he’d kept, and had promised to always keep…

Until the day she left him and filed for divorce.

  
  


*** *** *** ***

  
  


Abed sat up in bed and looked down at Troy, who was curled up with a stuffed Ewok. He’d felt a disturbance… no, not really a disturbance, more of a scene that had occurred in their group’s story that was completely out of order. He frowned, then climbed from beneath the sheets, and pulled on his Flash pajamas, Flash slippers, and Flash robe, before trekking across the backyard of the Winger home, to the backdoor. He tested the knob, and finding it unlocked, he opened it, and stepped inside.

Alanna and Alicia were sitting at the dining room table, watching the screen of an iPad which had been placed there. Abed would have frowned at Jeff’s using a screen to babysit his daughters, until he saw what was playing.

“Inspector Spacetime.” He nodded. “Cool.”

“Cool cool cool,” he and the twins said simultaneously. Abed smiled at the two little girls—they really were quite adorable. The studio had done quite well with employing them for the roles of Jeff and Annie’s daughters—before he looked around for Jeff or Annie.

He saw the two of them, in the kitchen, making breakfast, casting shy smiles at each other, and Abed knew.

He  _ knew _ .

And he also knew that it was too soon. It wasn’t in keeping with the genre that they’d currently found themselves in. Jeff and Annie reconciling on day four or five was too soon. There had been no major crises. There had been no major emotional blowouts between the two of them. They hadn’t argued. They hadn’t come to any type of deep understandings about the very things which had broken them up.

They hadn’t even had a bottle episode. There were still new characters being introduced. The new season was still being established. They couldn’t be done. Not yet. Not yet.

It was too soon.

He was only alerted to his whining when he heard one of the twins call for Jeff.

“Daddy! Uncle Abed is cwying!”

“Abed?” Annie called his name.

“Abed? Hey? You alright?” Jeff asked, stepping up to him, and placing his hand on Abed’s shoulder.

Abed simply shook his head, then pointed at first Jeff, then Annie.

“You messed it up! You messed it all up! The both of you!” He accused them.

Annie glanced up at Jeff, then back at Abed with confusion and embarrassment fighting for prominence on her face.

“Abed? What the hell are you talking about?” Jeff asked.

Abed glared, then shook off Jeff’s hand. He pointed at the two of them again.

“You had sex.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are about to get really dark and angsty, so I'm warning you all now. Don't get mad at me. Days 6-10 are going to be hard.


	7. Day Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie watches Shyla play with the twins and learns a little bit more about the teenager that Jeff is now fostering.
> 
> And Jeff and Annie fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Angst and sadness ahead!
> 
> This chapter is shorter than some of the others, because it just felt natural to end it where I did. The next chapter will be EXTRA long to make up for it.

**Chapter Six**

_ Day Six _

  
  


After Abed’s explosive anger the day before, Troy had taken his partner out of the house to go and stay with Craig for a bit, because Abed needed to get some “B Roll”. Or so they’d said. Everyone knew it was because Abed didn’t usually show emotion, especially not an extremely passionate one: disappointment, the way he had the day before.

Annie was slightly relieved that they’d agreed to take Barry with them. While she hadn’t spent much time talking to the young man, seeing him, or even thinking about him just reminded her of the son she’d lost. She wasn’t ready to deal with those emotions just yet. It was why she’d taken on more and more caseloads at the Bureau. Why she’d devoted so much time to working out more than before. She’d been working out more than Jeff.

It’s why she’d quit going to her therapist.

And why she’d been tempted to take the Adderall she’d found on the desk of a coworker who’d taken them from his son who’d had an addiction. She wasn’t positive that she was  _ actually _ going to take them, but she’d been tempted.  _ So _ tempted that she’d slipped the bag into her purse one day before she’d gone home. She’d still been married to Jeff then. 

Back before it all went to hell.

Annie stood in the middle of the backyard and watched as Alanna, Alicia, and Shyla all played together. They ran around the Winger Water Park, their clothes soaked through, screaming the entire time. Annie laughed at their antics, before getting more comfortable on the sun lounger. Her eyes got heavier as she felt herself relax for the first time in months.

Maybe it was the sunshine. Maybe it was the sound of her daughters’ laughter mixed with Shyla’s. Maybe it was just having time off.

_ Maybe it was being home again, with Jeff and the girls _ .

_ Whatever _ it was, Annie found herself falling asleep easily and quickly, her limbs growing loose, her body sinking into the lounger, before she was hovering in the space between wakefulness and deep sleep. A place most parents knew well, and dwelled in for years until their children stopped climbing into bed with them every night.

_ When was the last time, the girls climbed into bed with me? _ Annie wondered to herself.

“Shy, wheyuh you pawents?” Alicia asked the teenaged girl.

“Oh, um… well, my dad died in Kuwait when I was seven and my mom… well a police officer thought she did something bad, but she didn’t, and he didn’t know that, and she died,” Shyla responded. Annie could feel her body tense at Shyla’s words and she waited to hear the rest of the conversation to know if she needed to step in.

“Da police officuh a bad man?” Alanna questioned then and Annie waited, her limbs almost frozen. She knew that thoughts and sentiment regarding the police was divided all over the world. And Shyla and Barry had been arrested while protesting. Annie couldn’t say that she understood where Shyla was coming from, not completely. She sympathized, but she couldn’t say that she really empathized. But still, while she felt horrible at what Shyla and the rest of her community had to endure, and Annie wasn’t an officer who went out to answer calls in the field, but she was still a part of the law enforcement organization, as a member of the FBI’s Forensic Science Team. She didn’t want her daughters to think that she was a bad guy.

“That one was, but not all of them are,” Shyla explained, and Annie breathed a slow sigh of relief just as a large palm settled on her right shoulder. She opened her eyes and looked up.

Jeff stood beside and slightly behind her, his gaze fixed on the girls, his jaw clenched slightly, as he cupped Annie’s shoulder. Annie looked up at him, wondering what had him so upset.

“She’s really softening the blow,” he told her. He jerked his head towards Shyla. “Her mother and her older brother were both killed by local police. Her brother had called the police to do a welfare check on his mother, because he was worried about her when she’d mentioned that her dead husband was visiting her in her dreams. The police went over, entered his mother’s home without knocking and killed her. When Shyla’s brother showed up, and was justifiably distraught, they killed him as well.” Jeff looked down at Annie, his blue eyes glistening with unshed tears. “Shyla was there. Hiding in her bedroom after the first shot in her mother’s room. She saw it all.”

Annie gasped and covered her mouth, her eyes brimming with tears that immediately flowed down her cheeks like a waterfall. She was about to turn back to Shyla when Jeff crouched down in front of her.

“She doesn’t like a lot of people to know. There was a whole investigation and there’s been a trust fund set up for her with the settlement she received, but that’s something else that has been kept under wraps, because CPS doesn’t want her to be adopted just so the family could have access to the money.” He shook his head. “She told me that she likes that you don’t know. And she loves playing with the girls, that it feels nice to have a sibling again. She likes being the older sister, even if it’s temporary. She’d never say or do anything to hurt them or make them afraid. She said she feels like she can be herself here. So, you can’t treat her any differently, Annie. You can’t research and Post-It and Index Card and Organize her pain away.” He glanced away. “You can’t work her to feel better or make her feel or behave the way you want her to. It doesn’t work like that.  _ People _ don’t work like that.”

Annie scoffed and shook her head. She sat up, then leaned forward towards Jeff. “I don’t do that Jeff.”

Jeff rolled his eyes. “Oh please, Annie. Ever since I’ve known you, all you have done is try to  _ fix _ people until they believed, acted, studied, worked the way you wanted them to. But while I have no choice but to share custody with you over Alanna and Alicia, while Shyla is in my care? While Barry is? You’re not going to  _ Edison _ them into your idea of perfection!” He growled.

Annie’s eyes widened and she jumped off the seat, before she shoved Jeff. “I don’t try to  _ Edison _ anyone into my idea of perfection, Jeff! I accept them where they are. I love them in spite of their mistakes. You should know that better than anyone, otherwise I wouldn’t have been with you! I just want people to be their best selves. I want them to be  _ true _ to themselves. I want them to  _ feel _ , Jeff. To know that it’s okay to!”

Jeff rolled his eyes, stood up, then leaned down into her face. “No, you want them to  _ feel _ in the exact same way you do. To express it the same way you do, otherwise they’re doing it wrong. And if they’re not going to do it  _ right _ , do it  _ your _ way, then you run away. You just leave!”

“I didn’t  _ leave you _ , Jeff! I took some space and you were supposed to chase me!”

Jeff growled. “And you were SUPPOSED TO STAY!” Jeff yelled.

“Stop!” Annie jerked her head to the left and what she saw broke her heart.

Shyla knelt in the middle of the wet grass, her arms wrapped around the twins, pressing their tiny faces into her shoulders, all three of them with tears trailing down their cheeks.

“Mr. and Mrs. Winger? I know you’re adults and I’m supposed to respect you. And I’m sure you know more than me, but I know that arguing in front of your kids can mess them up. And I also know that if you’re both yelling, if you’re both still too angry to talk calmly, then you’re not listening to each other. And if you’re not ready to listen, then you’re not ready to heal, or move on, or fix what’s broken,” Shyla stated, brokenly, her voice wavering. She looked down at Alanna and Alicia. “Hey girls? You want to go and draw in my room?”

Alanna and Alicia looked up at Shyla as if she were their hero, and Annie felt a sharp stab of regret and guilt. The twins nodded, then they each took one of Shyla’s hands, and walked with her inside the house, throwing looks of concern back at Jeff and Annie.

Annie didn’t speak or move the entire time. It wasn’t until the door closed behind them that Annie turned towards Jeff. His face was red and tears slowly rolled down his cheeks.

“You weren’t the only one who lost a child, Annie. And you aren’t the only one who is sad, and mad, and grieving over the miscarriage. It’s just that I know we have two other children who still need us. Two children we  _ do _ have. And I’m not going to make them feel like they aren’t loved. I will  _ never _ make them feel like they’re not enough.” He glared at her. “But you don’t have a monopoly on grief.”

And with those words, he turned and entered the house. Annie could hear him striding over the floor, then she heard the front door close. The sound of his car start then squealing out of the driveway was the next sound she heard…

And all she needed to hear for the dam of emotion to break. Annie sank to her knees, and bawled...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, that was a fight that NEEDED to happen, but... it hurt to write.


	8. Day Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Troy and Abed get real with Annie.  
> Jeff meets a new woman while out grocery shopping.  
> And there's a medical emergency that brings the entire Greendale family together, closer than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm apologizing in advance for what's about to happen......
> 
> (And thank you for the comments and all of you who are still reading!)

**Chapter Seven**

_ Day Seven _

  
  


“Troy and Abed and Barry in the morning!” Troy and Abed sang out happily from the back patio.

“Lame,” Barry responded, rolling his eyes, trying not to let his smile break through.

Annie giggled, remembering the time when she, herself, lived and hung out with Troy and Abed all the time, hoping they would invite her to get involved with their playtime and fun. When the two of them had shown back up to the house, with Barry in tow, and told her that they were going to record an episode of “Troy & Abed In The Morning” and they wanted to include the twins and Shyla in the video, Annie had been a little wary. That morning the table had been tense, no one speaking. The only sound was that of forks and spoons scraping against plates and bowls, and the occasional slurp or sip from a cup, and one of the twins dropping their toddler sippy cups back onto the table. Annie still felt oddly vulnerable and emotionally raw, and if the way Jeff continued to look away from her was any indication, he felt the same. The twins followed Shyla’s lead, and as soon as the teenaged girl was done eating, so were they. Shyla helped clean them up and then told them they were going to go outside and work off breakfast. Annie hadn’t moved from her chair, she’d sat still, waiting for Jeff to say something…  _ anything _ .

But her ex-husband, the man she still loved, had simply finished his cup of coffee, put his dishes in the dishwasher, and gone outside to kiss their daughters goodbye. He’d even given Shyla a hug goodbye and a kiss on the forehead. Watching how close Jeff had gotten with the older girl Annie felt her heart clench in her chest. He was such a great father. Annie had always loved watching him with their daughters, and now with Shyla. She wasn’t sure what Jeff’s intentions were with Shyla and Barry, but Annie hoped that he would want to and try to adopt the smart girl.

Whether Annie was with him or not.

_ Oh HaShem. _ Just the thought of it. Of their divorce being permanent. Of never being with him, ever again…

Annie wanted to cry again.

“Hey, Annie,” Troy’s voice pulled her out of her morose musings.

Annie cleared her throat, blinked away her tears, and turned her head to observe her dear friend. “Hey, Troy. What’s up?” She asked.

Troy shrugged and glanced over at Abed and Barry as they interviewed the twins about who was better  _ Dora the Explorer _ or  _ Powerpuff Girls _ . Annie and Troy both smiled before they returned their attention back to each other.

“So um… have you talked to Jeff about Barry and Shyla? You know, like what’s going to happen to them, after… everything?” Troy waved his hands around.

Annie shook her head. “No, not really. Jeff and I… um… we’re not really talking that much.”

Troy frowned. “But Abed said…”

Annie sighed. “Yeah, seems like Abed was right about the whole us having sex and it ruining everything… thing.”

Troy groaned and rolled his eyes. “Abed, I owe you Swedish Fish! You were right.”

Abed glanced up and pointed a finger gun at Troy. “I always am.”

Troy looked back at Annie and shrugged. “He usually is.”

Annie chuckled sadly. “Why are you asking? Is Barry causing problems?”

Troy’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “No! No. Of course not. Actually, he’s a great kid, and Abed and I were kinda thinking about trying to… um… adopt him.”

Annie’s eyes widened as well. “Really? You guys want to adopt him?”

Troy nodded. “Well, yeah. You know Abed and I always talked about having kids, but neither of us wanted to take the chance of finding a girl to sleep with in order to have one.”

Annie frowned. “You guys know you don’t have to…” At Troy’s look of confusion, she shook her head. “Nevermind. I’ll talk to Jeff… I guess. See what’s happening.”

“Thanks, Annie. I just figured that since Jeff is trying to adopt Shyla…”

Annie sat up fully and turned to Troy. “Jeff is trying to adopt Shyla?”

“Well… yeah. He told all of us in the group chat the other day.” Troy handed over his phone to Annie and she scrolled through the messages, swallowing back the sadness and tears as she realized that it was a group chat that didn’t include her. As a matter of fact there were multiple group chat messages, all split up between the members of the former study group, but all of the ones that included Jeff, didn’t have her in them, and vice versa.

But the one in question…

**Shirley:** _ Hello everyone on this blessed morning! _

**Britta:** _To early for the god stuff Shirley_

**Jeff:** _ cant believe i am agreeing wit britta _

**Shirley:** _I am still praying for your godless souls, Britta and Jeff._

**Troy:** _ U guys? Abed and I r trying to watch IS. _

**Abed:** _It’s okay Troy. This is obviously a conversation the writers feel like we need to have to push the plot forward._

**Jeff:** _abed this isnt a tv show._

**Ian:** _ Plz remove me from this group. _

**Britta:** _Don’t!!!! He’ll just aks me what we talk about_

**Frankie:** _ Is there a purpose to this 7a.m. conversation? _

**Jeff:** _shirley_

**Shirley:** _I just wanted to check in with you, Jeffrey. How are you doing with Annie, the girls, and that darling, Shyla?_

**Jeff:** _good thinkin bout tryn to adopt shy_

**Abed:** _Hmm. Might be what the plot needs to bring you and Annie back together._

**Troy:** _ Ur a genius, Abed. _

**Jeff:** _ya so glad u thought of it abed_

**Vera:** _ Jeff, you know I’ve got your back if you need anything, right? _

**Jeff:** _ yea _

**Troy:** _ Us 2 _

**Jeff:** _ thx buddy _

**Shirley:** _ And you know my husband and I will be there to write letters of recommendation, or to pray for you. As a matter of fact, we’ll do both. _

**Britta:** _ Ian & I to Jeff but we both think u shuld talk to Annie _

**Ian:** _Britta, private conversations between husband and wife._

**Britta:** _ Hush Ian I tell the group every thing they need me _

**Jeff:** _ugh britta u r the worst_

Annie tried not to cry as she read the conversation, and the way the group was still the same even after all these years. Then she almost cried that Jeff had grown to the point where he was considering adopting Shyla, even without her input. Without her help.

Without her.

Had she miscalculated? Had she actually been wrong in thinking that filing for the divorce, getting the divorce, would help her and Jeffrey talk and work on their problems and eventually bring them back together?

_ Oh, sugar… _ she thought.

“Annie? Are you okay?” Troy asked, his face scrunched up slightly in concern.

Annie swallowed the lump in her throat and shook her head. “H-he uh… he didn’t tell me that he was trying to adopt Shyla.”

“No offense, Annie… but why would he?” Troy shrugged. “You basically told the guy that you didn’t want to be a part of his life anymore…”

Annie scoffed, her eyes widening. “I did not!”

“Um… Annie? Isn’t that what a divorce is? One person telling the other that they don’t want to be with them anymore and don’t want them to be in their life, a part of the decisions they make, don’t want to share money with them, or sleep with them anymore, and vicious versa?”

“It’s vice versa, and maybe that’s what other people mean, but it’s not what I wanted, what I want. I just…”

Abed spoke up then, his head tilted to the side. “What did you want, Annie? Because as someone who has watched a number of romcoms and romdrams, I can tell you that your actions, while dramatic, and kind of comedic in the way they went off the rails, were not romantic at all. Indeed, you’re kind of making yourself the villain in this story.”

Annie gasped and jerked her hand up to her chest, her lower lip trembling and her eyes blinking rapidly as tears filled her eyes. “I’m the villain?”

“Mommy is a Blowgon?” Alicia asked, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“No, Mommy! Don’t be a Blorgon!” Alanna cried, wrapping her arms around Shyla’s legs.

Annie was surprised when Alicia threw herself at her, as Alicia was definitely a “Daddy’s Girl.” She wrapped her arms around Alicia, and looked up at Abed. “I’m not a Blorgon, babies. I promise.”

Abed nodded, consideringly. “She’s right Aly and Anna. She’s not a Blorgon, she’s more like… Catwoman. She has a complicated relationship with Batman, she is only bad because something bad happened to her, and she’s not really evil, just… hurting.”

Alicia lifted her head from Annie’s chest and smacked her hands to her cheeks as she looked at her mother. “Oh noes! Mommy is huwt?” She threw her arms around Annie’s neck and squeezed her tightly. “I make you all bettuh.”

Annie sniffled as Alanna came to join her sister, and glanced up at Abed, who was still watching her intently. She mouthed “thank you” to him, even though it was his words which had initially set the girls off, but she knew that Abed saw the world through a very narrow-view lens. And though he and Troy hadn’t meant anything by their line of questioning, they’d still hit the nail on the head with what exactly was going on between Annie and Jeff.

While Annie had justified her actions when she’d first taken them. Thinking that her filing for divorce would make Jeff chase after her and they would confront the loss of their son, talk about the pills he’d found in her purse, talk about what they were feeling, their fears. That her filing for a finality to their relationship would instead bring them closer together. Heal them. Fix what was broken.

Instead, Jeff had seen her actions as her giving up on them. On him. On their family. He’d seen her as the villain that his father had always been. And instead of healing them, the legal action had broken them. Broken their family.

And after the events of the day before, she wasn’t sure they could ever be put back together again.

  
  


*** *** *** ***

  
  


Jeff frowned at the green bag in his hands. He grimaced as he thought about Shyla eating it, but the teenager had told him that she was “half-Vegan/half-detoxing carnivore”. Jeff had thought it was adorable. She wasn’t even old enough to drive, and yet, she was constantly making very big, very important decisions that were all geared to help make the world a better place. She was already a better person than he was, and she was thirty years younger than him.

“Ohh, a fellow vegan. Very sexy,” a husky voice said next to him, and Jeff glanced down to see a stunning light-brown skinned woman, with long, tight, red curls that hung to the middle of her back, wearing what looked like a soft brown beaded vest, with fringe that hung down to the middle of her thighs, a pair of short jean shorts, a tight Army green crop top, and a pair of high-top sneakers that were covered in graffiti looking up at him. He smirked at her obvious come-on and shook his head.

_ If only I were still Old Jeff, we’d be hooking up in the backseat of my car in five minutes. _

“Oh this isn’t for me,” he said, holding up the package of  _ MorningStar Spicy Black Bean Burgers _ . “They’re for my daughter… um… foster daughter…” He shook his head. “My daughter. She’s decided to be vegan.”

The beautiful stranger smiled at him. “Daughter? Foster daughter? Daughter?” She tilted her head to the side. “Which is it?”

Jeff chuckled. “Well, it’s not official just yet, you know, the courts are kind of…” He waved his hands through the air. The unknown woman laughed, and Jeff briefly wished he could see her smile, but he was thankful for the masks that they both wore. He had a few people in his home with health conditions…

“Aahh,” the woman nodded. “So you’re in the process of adopting her?”

Jeff nodded. “Yeah. I mean, she’s my foster daughter right now, and my twins, well they love having an older sister, you know?” He laughed softly as he thought about how he’d come home earlier, dropped off his briefcase, took off his tie, and went in search of the three girls, only to find them outside jumping hopscotch. Shy was helping Alicia, Barry was helping Alanna, Troy was cheering the two little girls on from the sidelines, and Abed was sitting as a referee, watching over them all. Jeff had been a little disappointed that Annie hadn’t been there, but he’d smelled dinner cooking in the kitchen and knew that must have been where she was. Of course, that was when he’d asked everyone if there was anything that they wanted, as he was going to go get groceries, and he’d ended up walking away with an extremely  _ long _ grocery list.

“And I bet you’re a great daddy,” the woman said, touching his hand lightly.

A part of Jeff wanted to flirt back with her, but as he stared down at her fingers against the back of his hand, he frowned.

_ Her fingers are too long. _

He wondered where that thought had come from, but then he realized that he was comparing her to Annie. He compared all women to his ex-wife. And they all came up wanting.

He wondered when the day would come when that wouldn’t be true anymore.

Gently, so as to not insult the woman, Jeff slowly pulled his hand away from her, and tossed the bag of vegan burgers into his shopping cart. He blushed slightly, and cleared his throat.

“So, um… you’re obviously vegan… anything you would recommend to help with my soon-to-be daughter’s transition into being a new vegan?” He asked, resting a hand on the cart’s handle.

The woman laughed. “Meaghan,” she said, holding out her hand.

“Jeff,” he answered and took her hand with his own, giving it a firm, but friendly shake.

“Well, Jeff, let me give you quick ‘ _ Shopping While Vegan _ ’ lesson,” she said.

Jeff nodded, and though he would deny it fervently years later, he pulled out the tiny notepad and pencil he always kept on him, and began to take notes.

  
  


*** *** *** ***

  
  


“Thank you, Jeff! Thank you!” Shyla’s lips spread wide with a happy grin as she threw her thin arms around him and hugged him tightly. They were standing in the middle of the kitchen putting away the groceries, the twins helping with all the items that went in the bottom of the refrigerator, or in the bottom cabinets (healthy snacks and juice bottles, all things Jeff didn’t mind them grabbing, especially since they needed someone else to open them). Annie was putting things away in the refrigerator as well, while Shyla had offered to put things away in the freezers and Jeff’s basement gym. Jeff had the cabinets.

It was all so blissfully domestic.

Which was why Jeff was so tense, sure that something, anything was about to go wrong. And soon.

He hugged Shyla back and when she dropped back down onto her feet, he narrowed his eyes playfully and leaned forward to whisper to her. “Did you take your pills?” He asked her.

Shyla’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Yes,  _ Dad _ . I told you I would.” She gasped and covered her mouth. Jeff patted her head and chuckled.

“It’s okay. It’s kinda how I’ve been seeing myself when it comes to you since I met you.” He shrugged. He shook a finger at her though. “But did you take  _ all _ of them, and not just the ones that aren’t ‘ _ chalky _ ’?” He asked, using the word she’d used to describe a few of the prescribed pills she had to take that she often “forgot” about. It was one of the reasons that Jeff asked her about them, three times a day. She had pills she had to take in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. And while she was good about taking the morning pills, the ones in the middle of the day she always had a problem with.

She glanced away and toed the floor silently. Jeff pointed out of the kitchen.

“ _ Shy _ ,” he warned. He looked down at Alanna and Alicia, who had become Shyla’s shadows, and were even now standing next to her, their mouths firmed into thin lines, their faces taking on mutinous expressions, as if they were ready to take him on. They saw themselves as Shyla’s protectors, and even though he knew it was the opposite of what they wanted, Jeff thought they were adorable.

“Okay, okay. I’m going,” Shyla huffed. She headed upstairs, Alanna and Alicia on her heels.

Jeff turned away from his girls, a fond smile on his face as he shook his head at their retreating forms, and found himself facing Annie… alone… for the first time since their big, emotional blowout.

“So um…” Annie cleared her throat. “How are you?”

Jeff rubbed the back of his neck. “Fine. A little… uh… ashamed by my actions yesterday.”

Annie shook her head. “No need to feel ashamed. You were just speaking your truth.” She smiled gently at him. “Nothing to be Zambia about… remember?”

Jeff chuckled. “Yeah.” He nodded, then looked around the kitchen for a moment before he returned his gaze back to her face. “We, uh… probably do need to talk, though. About everything…”

Annie nodded. “Yeah, definitely. Especially since Abed and Troy kind of showed me that—”

“MOMMY!”

“DADDY!”

“MOMMY!”

“DADDY! HELP!”

Jeff turned away from Annie and raced up the stairs, taking them two at a time, he ran towards their room but they weren’t there, then he stopped and listened for a moment.

“JEFF! IT’S SHYLA! CALL 9-1-1!” Annie’s heartbreaking scream reached his ears

Jeff’s heart stopped for a moment, then he ran down the hallway towards Shyla’s room, his hand already reaching into his pocket, yanking out his phone, and dialing the number for Emergency Services. He slid to a stop when he saw Annie, Alanna, and Alicia surrounding Shyla, whose body was on the floor. Annie was holding Shyla’s head, while Alanna and Alicia held her hands.

_ Oh god no. Not another one. I can’t lose another child. Please, god. Please. _

Jeff handed the phone to Annie, gently slid Alanna to the other side of Shyla’s body next to Alicia, and began performing CPR.

“Come on, Shy. Come on,” he pleaded in between breaths pushed into her body. He pressed down on her chest to the rhythm of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s song “W.A.P.”, not thinking of the lyrics, since that would be inappropriate, only of the beat and rhythm. He continued, trying to block out the sounds of Annie and their twins crying. He could hear the ambulance’s siren pulling up to the house, and heard Troy’s emotional voice as he opened the door. Jeff hadn’t even known that Troy was aware of what was going on.

The paramedics came in, Annie shifted the twins away from Shyla’s prone form, and Jeff…

He ignored them all.

_ Come on, Shy. You’re supposed to be here to help me with the twins. You’re supposed to be my new daughter. I was going to take you shopping for your prom dress. And your first car. I was supposed to be there to take you to college when you get into Harvard, and cry when I have to leave you at the dorms. The girls love you. I know Annie loves you. I love you. Troy and Abed love you. Shirley loves you. She can’t wait to do your hair. Britta loves how fierce you are. Ian loves your strong spirit. So do Frankie and Vera. And what about Barry? He won’t be the same if you don’t make it. Come on, Shy. Come on. You’re supposed to call me Dad for the rest of my life. Please come on. I can’t lose another child. I can’t. I won’t. _

“Mr. Winger?” A voice said to him. “You can stop now, we got her back. Mr. Winger?”

Jeff blinked and turned to look at the paramedics, who were now lifting Shyla onto a backboard, and then onto a stretcher. He looked around the room, everything slowly coming into focus. Annie and the girls were sniffling, but staring at him with concern. Troy and Abed were at the foot of Shyla’s bed, holding hands, with Troy comforting Barry. And Shyla…

Jeff looked back at her, and noticed her eyes moving slightly underneath her eyelids. He stumbled to his feet and rushed to her side.

“She’s okay?” He asked in a husky, raspy voice. It was then that he realized that tears were rolling down his cheeks.

“Well, we’ll have to take her to the hospital,” one of the paramedics said, looking up at Jeff with a sympathetic, kind smile. “But, she’s stable, yes.”

Jeff nodded.

“Is she allergic to anything?” The other paramedic said, a tall, broadly muscled, black man, with a gentle expression on his face. “We saw her bracelet that says she has pseudotumor cerebri, and is prone to strokes and seizures.” He glanced over at Annie when she gasped, before looking back at Jeff. “But does she have any allergies?”

Jeff swallowed, took a breath and nodded. “Yes. She’s allergic to penicillin, and for some reason she has an allergic reaction to ibuprofen. Oh and barium sulfate.”

The paramedic nodded, looking at Jeff with an impressed expression. “Anything else we should know before we take her over to D.U.?”

Jeff took a breath and nodded again. “She uh… the doctors just told her that she has an enlarged heart.”

The paramedics nodded again. They turned to leave the room, Jeff following behind them. When they got outside, they turned back to look at Jeff, and then around at everyone who was there, Jeff was unsurprised to hear four cars screeching to a halt in front of his house, the rest of his chosen family spilling from the vehicles and rushing up to him. The paramedics, however, looked beyond stunned.

“Umm… do you want to ride with her?” They asked Jeff.

He nodded then glanced over at Annie. He wanted to ask her to come with him, but, she was holding the girls.

“Jeff, Annie, you go. We’ll bring the girls,” Shirley told them, squeezing Jeff’s arm.

He swallowed back his tears and nodded again.

“Th-thank you, Shirley,” Annie breathed brokenly, then hurried after the paramedics, climbing inside and taking Shyla’s hand in hers, Jeff following after.

The doors closed behind them, and Jeff sat next to Annie on the bench seat, the paramedic working on Shyla. Annie held onto Shyla’s hand with her right one, and gripped Jeff’s right hand with her left. Jeff reached over to hold onto Shyla’s leg. Needing to hold onto some part of her, to be assured that she was still there. Still alive. Still with him.

“I had no idea,” Annie breathed.

Jeff swallowed and nodded. “Not a lot of people do. Just me, Shy, Barry, CPS… of course, her family knew when they were still alive. And CPS alerts the foster families ahead of time, but…” He shrugged.

“You’ve known her for a long time, haven’t you? I mean like… a long, long time.”

Jeff glanced away for a moment. “I met her during our fourth year. She was eight. She’d just lost her father, her mother, and her brother, within months of each other. She should have been angry and bitter. A problem child. But... Her foster mom was taking a couple of classes at Greendale, and you know… Shyla was reading an old school Batman comic book.” He chuckled. “We started to talk and debate about DC Comics versus Marvel.” He sniffed and shook his head. “I’ve been keeping my eye on her ever since. Especially because her foster mom at the time didn’t seem too interested. Whenever she went to a new family, or she ran from another group home, she would call me, or CPS would.”

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “She was one of the main reasons I suggested that we become foster parents.”

He saw Annie’s eyes widen and he nodded. “I mean, a lot of it was because of…” He trailed off, still not able to say his son’s name. “But the main reason was because I wanted to give Shy a permanent place. A family.” He lowered his head and let the tears fall from his eyes.

“I can’t lose her, Annie. I can’t lose another child. I can’t lose Shyla,” he whispered.

“And you won’t,” Annie promised, squeezing his hand, and laying her head on his shoulder.

  
  


*** *** *** ***

  
  


Shyla’s private room at Denver University Hospital was packed. Everyone was there. Jeff, Annie, Alanna, Alicia, Troy, Abed, Barry, Shirley, Detective Butcher, Jordan, Elijah, Britta, Ian, Frankie, Vera, and Craig, Shirley and Britta’s younger children were in the nursery. They were all sitting around the room, or leaning against the wall, Frankie and Vera having talked to and convinced the hospital administration to allow them all to stay inside the room if they all wore masks, gloves, and put on a freshly laundered pair of scrubs, putting their clothes into sealed bags. At any other time Jeff probably would have groaned and scoffed at the over-the-top safety measures that everyone was insisting on, but…

That was his kid lying there.

Shyla had briefly opened her eyes and smiled at him, her voice croaking as she said, “Don’t cry Dad.” Which of course had Jeff sobbing like a baby. Especially when her eyes closed again. But he was certain that she was still alive. For the last four hours he’d been asking every last medical person who stepped into the room if Shyla was okay.

And for the last four hours Annie hadn’t let go of his hand.

“Shyla can’t die,” Abed stated firmly, his voice sounding loud in the quiet hospital room, startling everyone out of the tense stupor they’d fallen into.

Jeff dragged his gaze away from Shyla’s face which had a nose cannula in it, and a tube down her throat, wires attached to her everywhere, over to Abed who leaned against the opposite wall in the corner. “What?” He asked.

“Shyla will be okay,” Abed said. “It’s obvious that the network brought her in to be another child for you and Annie, to be the sibling that Aly and Anna need. To help bring you and Annie back together, and to bring Barry into my and Troy’s life. Her purpose is too important to the plot. To the story for the writers to let her die now.”

Jeff growled, his body tensing as Annie placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Abed,” Annie’s voice was tight, though her tone was firm, yet soothing. It was something that only Annie seemed capable of pulling off when talking to Abed. “While the rest of us understand that you view the world through the lens of television and movies,  _ you _ have to understand that the rest of us, just don’t. And in moments like this, filled with emotion and tension? It’s best for you to keep your thoughts regarding plots, writers, networks, and the “audience” to yourself. Otherwise,” she leaned forward and narrowed her eyes at him, “I will move out of the way and allow Jeff to unleash the angry father bear inside of him, on you.”

No one moved, then Abed nodded. “Sorry, Annie. Sorry, Jeff. I don’t usually feel emotions like other people but this time…” He shrugged. “I feel a knot in my stomach and a sort of helplessness that I am uncomfortable with. My use of entertainment vernacular is simply to find my way back to something familiar and predictable.”

No one spoke because they all felt the same thing, when Alanna’s voice pierced the silence.

“Daddy? Shyla wants to wake up,” she said.

Jeff blinked at Annie. “What sweetie?”

“Yah, Daddy. Shyla is weady to wake up,” Alicia agreed.

Jeff looked at Annie, then back at Shyla…

Just as her eyes flashed open, she inhaled sharply, and started to choke on the tube in her throat.

“Shyla!” He yelled, jumping up, holding Alicia and Alanna tightly. “Somebody get a doctor!”

There was chaos in the room as five different people raced out of the room, and some went to get water for Shyla, but Jeff glanced up and saw Abed standing up straight, his face showing an expression of smugness, which is what Jeff would have labeled it, if it was on anyone else’s face. Instead with it being Abed, Jeff knew it was simply Abed being reassured in things “following the script.”

So he nodded at Abed in thanks and understanding.

And Abed nodded back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry... but hey, Shyla's awake!!! Man, that little girl has been through a lot...  
> Just like a certain FBI Forensics Agent.... hhhmmm I wonder if that's going to help or lead to anything....

**Author's Note:**

> I know! It’s sad, but this definitely will be a HEA in the end. Promise!  
> Thanks for reading!  
> 


End file.
